I'm Here For You
by ItsNeverWhatItSeems
Summary: Rory begins to struggle with the pressure of the upcoming competition and some old problems from his past resurface. Blaine is there to help Rory through his issues and a new romance is formed. But how will others react to their secret?
1. Chapter 1

**I'm Here For You**

**Summary: **Rory begins to struggle with the pressure of the upcoming competition and some old problems from his past resurface. Will Blaine be able to help Rory sort out his demons and will their friendship develop into something more?

**Setting: **Slight AU. McKinley is still roughly the same, the events of early Season 3 have still happened. However, Rachel was NOT dissqualified from competition. And, Blaine and Kurt are NOT together (they are just really good friends).

**Warnings: **Contains mild self-harm. Contains male/male relationships.

**Rating: **M (becasue I'm not yet sure how this will end).

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing (except my crazy imagination).

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><p>"Okay, everybody gather round." Mr. Shue announced to the crowed room.<p>

The members of New Directions moved from there various placements in the choir room to sit on their chairs in somewhat of a circle in the middle of the room.

Rory had hurried to get the seat next to Finn Hudson. He was Rory's only real friend here in America, other than Brittany of course. She normally ignored him at school though anyway, so Rory had taken to following Finn around like a lost puppy. Rory had only been in America for a month and most people at McKinley didn't even acknowledge his existence unless it was to harass him. He had been harassed a lot, especially by some of the hockey players. Although he was used to being abused, he still hated how he was treated here, but he knew there was nothing that he could do about it. Rory just tried to not show how much he was hurt by the bullying. He had had enough experience to know that if you showed a response it would encourage them to continue. The bullying had lessened a little once Finn took him under his wing. He was so grateful that Finn was his friend. He felt safer walking around with Finn, and that was one of the reasons he joined the Glee Club. The other members of New Directions were usually nice to him, but he still felt like he wasn't part of the group. They were all very talented and close friends. He felt like an outsider, even now his chair was sitting slightly outside of the tight circle they were in.

"We need to start practicing our vocals for the group number." Mr Shuester said as they settled down.

"I couldn't agree more, Mr. Shue. We need to be perfect guys if we want to beat the Trouble Tones and the other team." Rachel Berry announced loudly.

The New Directions were currently undertaking a Sectionals practice lockdown. They had been so busy with school elections and the Santana drama that the Sectionals competition had snuck up on them. They had found themselves one week away from competition and had no set list or choreography down. They were one hundred percent motivated to win Sectionals, so they decided to spend all weekend at school rehearsing. It was now Saturday afternoon and they had spent the morning discussing the setlist and sewing costumes. It had been decided that a Broadway duet between Rachel and Blaine would be there best bet for their opening number. The other song would be a group number, 'Don't Stop Me Know' by Queen, with an extensive dance routine. This had worried the newest, and youngest, member of the club. Rory had never been well coordinated and had discovered very quickly when he joined Glee Club that his dancing skills were pretty bad. He was comforted by the fact that he wasn't the only bad dancer though, Finn was just as bad as him.

"Has everybody learnt their parts yet? I know I only gave them to you a couple of hours ago, I hope you have all had a chance to look over them. I want to have these vocals under control before we start the dance rehearsal so we know how it will flow. Okay. Is everybody ready?" Mr. Shue gave a thumbs up to the band who understood the signal and started to play.

Rory's solo was in the second half of the second verse. One by one the Glee members performed their solo's with perfection while the remainder sung backup. Rory was nervous when his turn arose. They others had been perfect and he didn't want to let the team down. He took a deep breath and began.

_Ohhh, burning through the sky yeah. _

_Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit._

_I'm travelling at the speed of light._

Rory groaned inwardly. He had hit that last note wrong. It sounded flat. He noticed the others look at him, obviously noticing his mistake.

_I want to make a supersonic woman of you._

He ended and looked down to avoid eye contact with the others. They finished the song and were met by applause from Mr. Shue.

"That was amazing guys. I am so impressed, that was great for a first run. Normally you guys take a few practices to get that good."

"Are you kidding, we were almost perfect! Except for Rory's flat, but the rest of were great!" Rachel said in what must have been her attempt at encouraging the team.

It was encouraging for everybody else, but Rory felt hurt by her words. He could feel most of his teammate's eyes on him, silently judging. He looked up, and sure enough over half the groups eyes were focused on him, though they quickly looked away to make it look like they weren't starting at him. He put on his happy face which he had perfect by now to hide how hurt he was by her words.

"Okay. Everybody take a quick break. Meet back here in five minutes and we will do another run through." Said Mr. Shue

Rory quickly got up and mumbled that he needed the bathroom before making a swift escape. He waited until he had reached the bathroom down the hallway before he let his mask fall. His happy smile disappeared and was replaced with a sorrowful frown. He made his way over to the sinks and looked up into the mirror. He stared at his reflection.

_God! Why do you have to mess up everything! You're the weakest link in the group. They would be better off without you. You can't even sing four lines of song right!_

A single tear escaped his eye and he looked at how pitiful his reflection was. His thoughts were interrupted though as he heard the door opening. Quickly he wiped the tear of his check with the back of his hand and put his smile back on. He turned on the tap, pretending to be washing his hands.

Blaine walked in and stopped when he saw Rory. Rory smiled up at him, hoping that Blaine would buy the mask he had put on to cover his sadness.

"Hey Rory, didn't know you were in here. I thought you were still in the choir room." Blaine said.

He seemed to be examining Rory's face and Rory wondered whether his eyes looked like he had been crying. They shouldn't be puffy because he had been bawling or anything. But he thought that they might still be unnaturally red. He hoped they weren't because he didn't feel like making up an excuse to give Blaine.

"Oh, yeah. I had to...go." He looked away and moved over to the paper towels to dry his hands, turning his back to Blaine.

"Of course. Are you okay? You look a little upset."

_Damn it! Blaine had seen through his mask._

"No, I'm okay. Nothing wrong, not upset." Rory replied defensively.

"I wouldn't worry about that note. I sing flats all the time. I'm sure you hit it right next time."

Rory had finished drying his hands and had turned around to face him.

"Yeah, I know." he replied simply and went to make quick escape.

Blaine stopped him by reaching out and grabbing his shoulder just has he was about to leave.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked with what Rory took as suspicion.

"Yeah. I really am. Thanks." Rory lied with a smile, hoping Blaine would believe it, and returned to the choir room.

They practiced the song two more times. Much to Rory's delight he didn't make any more mistakes and was feeling a little better about himself by the time their dinner arrived.

"Okay everybody, dig into you pizza.' Mr. Shuester ordered, 'Dance rehearsal starts in an hour and you're going to need all the energy you can get!"


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm Here For You**

Hello! Hope you are enjoying my story. I honestly think that Blaine and Rory would make a cute couple, or even just a cute bromance, but I know that most people don't like Blaine to be with anybody except Kurt. Oh well...

**Warning: **This chapter, and almost all after this contains self-harm and talk of self harm.

Also, this may be the last time I can update until after Christmas. Sorry! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

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><p>"Okay. Five, six, seven, eight." Mr. Shuester clapped them in as the music begun.<p>

Everybody started to move. Mike Chang was out the front leading the group. He had been assigned the task of choreographing their dance number and had spent the last hour teaching the rest of the New Directions the routine and staging. The routine was one of the hardest the group had ever done, but after an hour of repeating it it was beginning to look good.

Rory was struggling though, due to his lack of coordination and rhythm. He was doing okay on most individual moves, but his problem was getting them all to flow in sequence. He was mentally counting out the beats and felt that his movements were a tad out of sync with the music. He tried his best to copy what Mike was doing and follow along with the others, but he still managed to mess almost all of the routine up.

He would have felt better if he knew the others were struggling too, but even Finn had mastered the routine. The music drew to an end and the group formed into their final pose.

"Good work guys, I am really impressed with how quickly you picked that routine up." Mr. Shue said giving them a round of applause.

"It's because we have such an excellent dance teacher." Tina said smiling at Mike.

"That's very true Tina. Now who's tired? I think that's probably enough dancing for one night. It's 9pm now, you may have a bit a free time. Have a shower if you want, get ready for bed. Boys, you're in the choir room. Girls, you're in the class room across the hall. I would like you all to be in bed by 10pm, 10.30 at the latest, you will need your sleep for tomorrow. No, messing around please. Puck, I'm looking especially at you here…no funny business." Mr. Shue said pointing at Puck.

"I promise to be on my best behavior." Puck said holding his right hand up in a mock pledge with a cheeky grin.

Everybody gathered their belongings that had been strewn across the auditorium and headed out towards the classrooms. They reached the choir room, where everybody's bags and bedding were located. The girls grabbed theirs and moved across the hallway leaving the boys alone in the choir room.

"I don't know about you boys, but I need a shower. And then need to perform my nightly skin moisturisation regime." Kurt announced to the group, digging out his toiletries bag and heading out the door towards the locker room.

The rest of the boys voiced their agreeance to Kurt, all searching for their toiletries and headed out the door.

Rory wanted a shower too. He was all sweaty from dancing, but he didn't want to shower in front of the others. He just wanted to be alone right now, so he headed off to the other side of the school where he knew there was another set of showers.

He entered the bathroom and put his stuff down on a bench. He got undressed, wrapping his towel around his waist, and then walked over to the showers. He decided that the one on the right looked the cleanest and he got in. He removed his towel, which still made him feel uncomfortable even though there was nobody else in the room. He was not used to having open showers like the ones at McKinley, the showers at his school in Ireland actually had curtains. He turned on the water and adjusted it to the right temperature before stepping under it with his eyes shut and letting it soak him.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his arms. They were covered in bruises. He let his right index finger smooth over a rather large purple one located on his upper left arm. He squeezed it a bit and felt a familiar pain in his arm. This particular bruise had been obtained during a rather heated attack by the hockey team. He closed his eyes and visuallised the scene. How he had been pushe into some lockers and then held up against them by two jocks. The captain, his main tormentor, had then proceeded to hit him until his lookout announced that a teacher was about to walk down the hallway. He shudered, remebering the pain and fear he had felt then.

He opened his eyes and moved his fingers down to touch a slightly smaller bruise, just below his elbow. This one had not been caused by a bully. Nor had it been caused by an accident. This one had been made on purpose. He closed his eyes again and thought back to this bruise's origins. He had just been harassed by the hockey team again. But this time he had let his guard down and had ended up crying. He was furious at himself for letting his emotions show, especially to his tormentors. As punishment for his actions he had flung his arm into the edge of the lockers. It had hurt immensely, but it had left a reminder for him to never let his emotions slip again.

He reopened his eyes, picked up his soap and began to wash himself. He took extra care when going over his arms, examining the other bruises there. Some were the result of bullying, but others were more self-inflicted punishments for various acts ranging from forgetting to do some homework to accidently tripping over and hurting Brittany's cat, Lord Tubbington. He thought about the events of the day, his mistake during vocal practice and his inability to dance. He was going to have to improve or New Directions were going to lose the competition, and it would be all Rory's fault. He was going to make sure he did better tomorrow. He was going to be perfect even, so he wouldn't let the rest of the team down. But first he needed to punish himself, that way he would be reminded of his mistakes and be encouraged to do better.

Taking a deep breath he flung his right arm with all his might towards the corner of the shower tiles. The part of his lower arm that made contact with the wall exploded in pain. Rory winced, closing his eyes and let the water run over his face while he let the pain die down. He opened his eyes and examined the spot. It had turned an odd red colour and was very tender when he tentatively prodded it. He let the pain sink in and reminded himself of what it was for.

This pain was for screwing up and letting down the team.

He decided to go again, drawing back his throbbing arm and hurling it against the wall again. This time it was his wrist that connected with the tiles and the pain was so extreme that he let out a small cry and his eyes welled up. He cradled his wrist in his left hand and examined it. It was quickly turning red and swelling. His entire lower right arm was in pain now and he decided that was enough. He turned off the shower and grabbed his towel with a little difficulty as he was mostly only using his left arm. He hurried over to his clothes and pulled on his boxers, track pants and t-shirt. He finished by putting his hoodie on, allowing it to cover both his old and newly formed bruises. He dried and brushed his hair and grabbed his toothbrush and tooth paste out and began brushing his teeth. Only now did he realise just how much he had hurt his wrist. He was right handed and the motions involved with brushing his teeth were excruciating. A few tears escaped his eyes and trailed down his cheeks. He rinsed his mouth out, spitting back into the sink. He looked back up at his reflection. The sight of tears falling down his face made him more upset and he begun to fight back sobs.

A sudden noise behind him made him jump. Rory had his back to the door, but could see in the mirror that Blaine had just walked in carrying his towel and toiletries.

"Oh hey Rory. I was wondering where you had disappeared too. I guess you had the same idea as me. The other showers were full and I couldn't be bothered waiting."

Rory quickly wiped his face and tried to get his breathing under control. He opened his mouth to say something, but knew if he tried to talk it would come out as a sob. So he just stood there not knowing what to do.

Blaine walked up to the sink next to Rory and looked over at him. Rory tried to hide his face but failed as Blaine noticed his puffy eyes and quivering lip.

"What's wrong Rory?" he asked with concern, placing his hand on Rory's shoulder to comfort him.

Rory opened his mouth again to say that he was fine, but all that came out was a sob. He hid his face in his hands and stood there crying. Blaine didn't understand why Rory was so upset but he pulled the shaking boy into a tight hug to try and comfort him. Rory buried his face in Blaine's neck and kept sobbing.

"Can you tell me what the problem is?" Blaine asked rubbing Rory's back.

Rory just shook his head and continued crying.

They stood like that for a few minutes, Rory eventually calming down. He pulled away from Blaine and wiped his face.

"Ah…can you please not tell anybody about this." Rory asked feeling embarrassed.

"Of course. Do you feel better? I know when I feel upset I usually feel a lot better once I have let all of my emotions out." Blaine said.

"Yeah, I guess so." Rory said as he went to grab his stuff.

He winced as pain shot through his right wrist. Blaine noticed this and pulled Rory's arm towards him.

"What happened to your wrist?" He asked in shock, examining the now swelling joint.

Rory looked down ashamed and quickly formulated a lie.

"I slipped on the wet floor earlier. It doesn't hurt much, it will be fine in the morning." He said and rushed out the door.

He returned to the choir room where most of the other boys were, having finished their showers. Rory set out his sleeping mat in a corner of the room, far away from the others and sat by himself watching the others get ready for bed until Mr. Shue came in and announced that he was turning off the lights.


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm Here For You**

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><p>It was now 11.30pm and the room was filled with a chorus of snores. Rory sighed and shifted so he was laying on his right side; he was yet to fall asleep. He had tried to sleep, but his mind was racing with thoughts. He had been going over dance steps in his head, which then lead to him thinking about his self-punishment for messing them up. That then drew his attention to the pain in his wrist. He then went over his interaction with Blaine in the bathroom. He was angry at himself for crying in front of Blaine. But he had felt so comfortable and safe in Blaine's arms, he had breathed in his scent and felt his heartbeat, it felt like all the pain in his life had disappeared<p>

He rolled over again, his back getting sore from sleeping on the hard floor. This was getting ridiculous, the more he lay here the more uncomfortable he got. And the more uncomfortable he was the harder it was to go to sleep. He decided that there was no way he would be getting to sleep anytime soon, and he was sick of lying down, so he got up and quietly left the room.

He wandered the corridors for a while. It was the first time he felt safe walking around the school because there was nobody else around to harass or bully him. After completing a full tour of the school he decided to find a comfortable spot to sit and rest. He chose the library where he knew, from his hours of hiding from bullies, there were comfy couches. He settled down into one and curled up, the soft cushions being much more comfortable than his place on the floor. His eyes were heavy and they slowly drifted shut and he fell into a deep sleep.

_...zzzz..._

"You! Get out of my sight. I always knew something was wrong with you! You were a mistake after all. The larger man yelled at him, waving his hands around for dramatic effect.

Rory sighed and hung his head. He had just told his parents the truth. The secret he had kept from them for a whole year now. He hadn't told them yet because he knew this would be the reaction he received, but he had no choice but to tell them now because they had basically found out for themselves.

This whole thing started about a year ago. Rory had had a few girlfriends and he had really liked them, but he also noticed that he was attracted to guys as well. At first he had pushed those feelings aside and would curse at himself every time he would subconsciously start checking out a guy, but he eventually grew to accept the fact that he was bi.

His attraction towards one of his friends, Blake, was discovered to be mutual and they had quickly developed a secret relationship. It was a fairly open relationship, mostly they just became really good friends, but they often had heavy make out sessions. That is how his parents had found out. Rory had invited Blake over to play video games. They had started playing Mario Kart, but they soon forgot the game, snuggled together and started snogging. That is how they were found when his mother walked in with a pile of his clean washing.

He sent Blake home as his mother went downstairs and talked to his father. He had been called down a few minutes later and asked to explain himself. That was when he told them the truth. His mother sat with an expression that looked like a cross between shock and confusion. His father's face was clearly full of disgust and rage. That was when Rory knew that he was in for a rough night.

His father continued to hurl verbal abuse at him while he stood there with his head down.

"Didn't you hear me boy! I said get out of my sight!"

With that Rory stumbled backwards out of the room and ran upstairs to his bedroom. He closed the door and lay down on his bed and let the tears flow. He tried to stay quiet, but his sobs were loud. He cried like that for half an hour, tiring himself out, until he fell asleep. He was woken up hours later by the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. He listened as they came towards his door, paused, then his door was wrenched open. Rory lay as still as he could, pretending to be asleep, hoping that he would be left alone. Unfortunately his father moved closer and clasped his large hand roughly on Rory's shoulder, causing him to flinch, and turned him over so that he could look at him. Rory could smell the alcohol on his father and braced for the pain which he knew was about to come.

"You're a disgrace to this family!" Mr. Flanagan yelled as he pulled Rory up off of his bed.

Rory knew from past experience that there was no use in fighting back, it was better to just take the abuse.

Mr. Flanagan raised his arm and formed a fist, giving Rory a split second to brace himself for the impact. Within seconds the fist connected to his face with such force that Rory was sent flying backwards into his dresser and landed in a heap on the ground. His father stepped towards him, drew his leg back and dug his foot into Rory's side. Rory gasped at the pain, and felt tears fall from his eyes. His father got in few more good kicks before grabbing his arm and pulling him up to his feet.

"Never again will you bring a boy into this house and do disgraceful acts! Not anywhere else either. If I ever see you with that boy, or any other boy, again expect pain."

Rory could see his mother standing in the doorway looking conflicted. Rory could see that she didn't want to watch her child being beaten up, but he knew that she would not get in the way of his father. He was controlling and his mother couldn't stand up for herself, let alone Rory. His father gave him one last punch to the face and left the room taking Rory's mother with him.

_...zzz..._

Rory woke with a start. His breathing was sporadic and his face wet from tears. He was very familiar with this dream, this nightmare. That was because it was not just a dream, but a memory in dream form, which kept replaying in his head about once a week. He took a few deep breaths in an attempt to get his breathing back to normal. He had almost calmed down when a firm hand placed itself on his shoulder. Rory instinctively flinched and curled up into the fetal position to protect himself.

"Rory?" he heard a soft, soothing voice say, "Rory, it's me, Blaine."

Rory slowly uncurled and looked up at Blaine, his eyes still wet and full of fear.

"What are you doing in here? I woke up and you were gone and I got worried. I have been walking around looking for you for the past fifteen minutes." Blaine asked examining Rory's face.

"I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk, then I decided that this couch was more comfortable than the choir room floor."

"Yeah, I don't blame you." Blaine laughed and sat down on the opposite couch.

They sat in silence for a moment. Blaine looked like he needed to say something, but was worried about whether it was appropriate. He finally seemed to make his decision and addressed Rory.

"You seemed to be having a pretty bad dream. You were crying and rolling around."

Rory was immediately embarrassed. Why was it always Blaine that found him at his weakest? He quickly formulated a cover.

"Yeah, I was dreaming about…my family. I dreamt they got hurt." Rory falsely explained.

Blaine stared deep into his eyes, searching for the truth. Rory had never been a good liar.

"I hope you don't think I'm being too pushy or rude, but I think you're lying." Blaine said, continuing to stare at Rory, who looked away and started to fidget with some stitching on the sofa. "And why did you flinch so badly when I touched you."

Rory was silent for a while as he debated whether he should tell Blaine the truth. He didn't want to tell anybody about his past, but he knew that Blaine wouldn't fall for any lies he made up.

"My dream was actually a memory from a while ago. It has been haunting me for months now."

He paused and took a deep breath before revealing his secret.

"Its about when my parents found out the truth, about my sexuality. I'm bisexual." Rory admitted.

Blaine smiled and gave him an encouraging look.

"They caught me with another boy. And they certainly didn't approve." Rory finished.

Blaine sat for a moment to take in this new information.

"I'm really sorry your parents aren't supportive. I kind of understand how they feels, you know I'm gay right? My parents have never physically said they disapprove, but I can tell by the way they act that they aren't thrilled about it."

Blaine stood up and moved to sit next to Rory and put his arm around him in comfort.

"How come you didn't tell anybody here? I mean, you didn't have to tell the whole school, but you should tell the Glee Club. They are all very supportive of me and of Kurt. And you've seen the way that we supported Santana and Brittany recently. Both of Rachel's dads are gay. And you can trust us not to tell anybody else. We would never intentionally tell a secret like that if you weren't ready for it to be known."

Rory looked at Blaine with tears in his eyes.

"I know, I just don't like people knowing my secrets. They always end up getting spread around."

Blaine took Rory's face in his hands and carefully wiped his tears away.

"How did things end up with the boy?" Blaine asked inquisitively.

Rory sighed and replied, "Yeah, our relationship disintegrated after that."

"Wait a minute, this still doesn't explain why you flinched when I touched you. Is there something else that you're not telling me?"

Rory tried to hide his face so Blaine wouldn't see the look of humiliation on it.

"My father was fond of violent discipline. The night that I came out I received one of the worst beatings I had ever had."

Rory looked across at Blaine who was sitting there with a look that appeared to be a cross between shock and sympathy.

"That is one of the reasons I came here on exchange. I couldn't stand living with him any longer. I wanted to get as far away as I could."

"That is horrible. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Have you ever talked to anybody else about it? What about your mother? What does she do?" Blaine asked.

"My mother is too afraid to stand up for herself or go against my father. So my brother and I have to fend for ourselves. And no, I haven't told anybody else. There is no point; they wouldn't be able to help."

Blaine leaned towards Rory, embracing him in a hug. Rory felt the same feeling of security he had felt when Blaine had held him earlier. He didn't understand what it was about Blaine that made him feel so comfortable, but for the first time in his life he felt like he could trust somebody with all of his secrets that he worked so hard to keep.

Blaine pulled back and looked Rory on the eye, deep hazel to bright blue.

"I'm here for you. If you need to talk or vent some emotions, or have any other problems, I'm happy to help."

It was now 2am and the pair decided that they had better get back to bed or they would be too tired to practice tomorrow. So they returned to the choir room and went to their respective beds, both falling asleep within minutes.

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><p><strong>AN:**

**Thanks for the reviews, they are lovely and encouraging. **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. As I was writing it I just wanted to giver poor Rory a hug. :(

**Damian McGinty is quite possibly the most adorable man ever. :) I work at a music store and I had to re organise the CDs today. I spent a signifcant amount of time in the Celtic Thunder section just staring at his gorgous face. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

"Everybody rise and shine!" Mr. Shuester called out to the room. "It's 7.30am. Breakfast is in thirty minutes, and then we're getting straight to work."

He left the room to go and wake up the girls. Rory was not a morning person, he groaned and rolled over to face the wall and covered his face with his sleeping bag. He heard the other boys get up and start moving around the room, packing up their bedding.

"Come on Rory, get up!" Finn called from across the room.

Rory's reply consisted of a moan and a mumbled, "Five more minutes."

"Dude, if you don't get up, we'll be required to use force." Puck said jokingly.

"Whatever, I'll be up in a minute…"

The room went quiet and then suddenly Rory was being crushed by the weight of Finn, Mike, Sam and Puck who had piled on top of him.

Rory was instantly gasping for air because the weight of the four large boys was crushing his lungs. Pain also shot through his wrist as one of the boys was currently squashing it.

"Okay…*_gasp*_…okay…._*gasp*…_I'm awake! _*gasp*_ Get off me…_*gasp*…_you're crushing me..._*gasp*..._"

The boys laughed and got off him. Rory sat up and surveyed the room. Finn, Puck, Sam and Mike had returned to packing up their belongings, Artie and Kurt were absent (he assumed they had already headed over to the Home Ec. Room for breakfast) and Blaine was sitting at the piano staring back at Rory.

"Glad to see your finally up." Blaine said with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Not a morning person…"

"I noticed."

Fifteen minutes later the group had assembled in the Home Ec. Room and were eating pancakes.

Rory was struggling to use his knife as his right wrist was so sore and swollen. He tried to hide this from everybody else, and he succeeded for the most part because everybody was too busy eating to notice or care. But Blaine had been paying extra attention to him and had picked up on his condition. As they were cleaning up he pulled Rory aside.

"Hey, what is wrong with your wrist? You said last night that it would be fine, but it looks really swollen." he asked concerned.

Rory looked down at his wrist ashamed.

"It's fine, really. I know it looks swollen, but it doesn't really hurt. It will heal itself in no time."

Blaine took Rory's wrist in his hand and examined it.

"Rory, I think you should get this looked at. I think it's worse than you're letting on."

Rory pulled his hand out of Blaine's and said, "No, it's fine. If I leave now then I'll miss practice and then we'll lose Sectionals."

"Rory…don't be silly, you need to get this checked out. Everybody else will understand. I don't think…"

"Gosh, I'm fine! Would you just drop it! I didn't ask for your help, okay. I don't need it!" Rory exclaimed, cutting Blaine off mid-sentence.

Blaine was taken aback by Rory's outburst. Rory too was a little surprised by his actions, he immediately felt embarrassed and turned around and walked off in a hurry.

By 8.30am they were back in the auditorium rehearsing their big dance number again. The constant throb in Rory's wrist reminded him of the reason it was there. It was his punishment for messing up the routine yesterday. The thought of that pushed him to perfect the dance today, and it seemed to be working. On the first run through he was able to keep up with the others and only made one significant mistake. The second run went even better with zero major faults. He was feeling much better about himself by the time they began their third run. Unfortunately disaster struck mid-way through the number when Rory tripped over his own feet and was sent tumbling to the ground. He cried out in pain when his wrist, which he instinctively had stuck out to break his fall, jarred into the ground, exploding in pain.

The rest of the group stopped. Blaine rushed over to Rory who was still on the ground holding his wrist, holding back tears.

"Are you okay? Did you hurt your wrist?" Blaine asked, extending a hand out to Rory to help pull him up off the floor.

"I'm fine guys." he said accepting the hand.

"Are you sure Rory? That sounded like it really hurt." Mr. Shue asked.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine. It's okay."

The group looked at him skeptically, Blaine especially. He felt like he was going to crack at any moment and let his true emotions show. He needed to get out of there.

"I need a break." he said as he left the stage and headed up the stairs to the hallway, hearing Mr. Shue announce a ten minute break behind him.

He reached the hallway and tried to get his breathing under control. His face was flushed and hot as he had been practicing in his hoodie to hide his arms. Spying a drinking fountain across the hall he went and quenched his thirst. He unzipped his jacket to allow some air in attempting to cool himself down. He sat down, leaning against a wall, and started fanning his face with his left hand while he inspected the damage of his still paining right wrist. It was still just as swollen and tender as it had been last night.

His silent contemplation was interrupted by Blaine's entry to the corridor.

"Rory, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It sounded worse than it was." he replied, trying to sound as positive as he could as he stood up.

Blaine moved closer to him, noticing his face was flushed and sweaty.

"Dude, why do you still have your jumper on? Aren't you hot?"

Rory panicked, suddenly remembering that his jacket was undone and tried to think of a way to inconspicuously do it back up so Blaine wouldn't see his arms.

"No, I'm fine. I was feeling a little cold actually." Rory lied.

"Come on Rory, I think we've established by now that you're a terrible liar." Blaine said giving him a knowing look.

He reached out and grabbed part of Rory's jacket and went to help pull it off.

"No!" Rory yelled trying to pull it back on, but Blaine had already slipped half of the jacket off his right arm.

Blaine gasped in shock when he saw what was hidden beneath and Rory looked away ashamed.

"Wha...what are all of these from?" he eventually managed to stutter out.

Rory continued to look at the ground, unable to look up into Blaine's face.

"They are mostly from the hockey team shoving me into lockers."

"They did this to you?"

"Yeah…"

"Why didn't you tell anybody?"

Rory paused for a moment, pulling his jacket back on, before answering, "Because they would ask too many questions…"

"That's ridiculous. Why would you be worried about…wait. What do you mean most of them were from bullying? Where did the others come from?"

Blaine saw the look of panic that crossed Rory's face. He stepped closer to Rory and embraced him in a hug.

"You can tell me, I promise I won't tell anybody else. I want to help." He soothed into Rory's ear.

There it was again. That feeling of security Rory had when Blaine held him in his arms. That feeling that made him want to stay in those arms forever. That feeling that made him okay with telling his secrets.

"I did them…" he whispered.

Silence.

Blaine pulled back and looked at Rory, seeing the shame in his eyes.

"Why?" he asked, trying to understand what would possess him to hurt himself.

"I…do it as…punishment…for when I screw up." Rory said, struggling to say the words out loud.

"That's crazy! Why do you need to punish yourself?" Blaine said picking up Rory's sore wrist carefully. "Is this….?"

Rory avoided Blaine's eyes.

"Yes. I was messing up the dance routine yesterday, I didn't want to let the team down. And it worked, I was almost perfect this morning!" he said, trying to justify his actions.

Blaine was about to say something but was interrupted by Finn walking into the scene.

"Hey guys. Mr. Shue wants everybody back on stage. Are you feeling better Rory?"

"Peachy." Rory replied.

"Great." Finn said turning around and reentering the auditorium.

Rory went to follow him but was stopped by Blaine.

"This conversation isn't over. We'll talk later."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**

**Hello! ****I'm not really sure about this chapter. I kept rewriting bits of it because I didn't like it; that is why it took me so long to update. Sorry!**

**Also, just to remind everybody Kurt and Blaine are not together, there have an existing friendship though. Please don't hate me for how I portray Kurt in this chapter. :)**

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><p>Rory took extra precautions to avoid Blaine for the remainder of the rehearsal. They group had spent the rest of the morning putting the finishing touches on their performance. By 1pm they had perfected the routine and where feeling confident. Exhausted the group had been dismissed and allowed to go home.<p>

Rory gathered his belongings quickly and left the school. He walked the few blocks back to his temporary home, went upstairs to his bedroom and sunk down on the bed. He was physically drained from all the dancing and emotionally drained from all of the drama. He rolled over and snuggled down into his bed, allowing his eyes to close. He was so tired that he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. He slept through the buzz of his phone and only woke when Brittany came in to tell him dinner was ready.

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute." he said, still a little groggy from his nap. He sat on the edge of his bed and picked up his phone.

**2 New Messages**

Seeing that they were both from Blaine he put off reading them until later. He went downstairs and settled down at the dinner table and put on his perfected fake smiled for his host family.

"You must have worked hard at your rehearsal if you managed to sleep all afternoon." Mrs. Pierce commented, trying to make conversation.

"Yes, we danced non-stop. It was crazy." Rory said enthusiastically, not mentioning the lack of sleep he had last night and how that was the main reason for his fatigue.

"Are you guys ready for Sectionals?" Brittany asked.

"Ah…yeah, I think so." Rory said trying not to give too much away to his competition.

After dinner Rory helped with the dishes and then went and had a shower, taking his time, knowing that his phone was still waiting to be read. He eventually ran out of excuses to avoid his room and entered it, settling down on his bed. His phone was still flashing, having received yet another text message from Blaine. He reluctantly picked it up and opened the messages.

**Rory, are you ok? – Blaine**

**We need to talk about this… – Blaine**

**Please Rory. I just want to help you. – Blaine**

Rory knew Blaine would keep texting him untill he replied. He debated what to say in reply and finally settled on one word.

**Why? – Rory**

Blaine replied quickly.

**Why what? Why do we need to talk about this or why do I want to help you? – Blaine**

**Both – Rory**

**Rory, your crazy for thinking that you need to punish yourself. I can't let you walk around hurting yourself; I care too much about you. – Blaine **

**You think I'm crazy….thanks. – Rory**

**No! Rory, please tell me why your doing this to yourself. Help me understand. – Blaine**

**I'm not telling you. – Rory**

**Please Rory, what are you scared of? I'm not going to tell anybody else. – Blaine**

**Like I said last night, I don't tell people my secrets. They always end up being spread, even if you try not to. – Rory**

**You were ok with telling me your secrets last night. Rory, I think you have serious trust issues. You can trust me. – Blaine**

This last text angered Rory. He didn't have 'trust issues', he was just selective in who he trusted! He didn't know what to say in reply, so didn't text back. He was angry at Blaine for insisting something was wrong with him and he was angry at himself for letting his guard down and allowing Blaine into his secrets. He was in the process of contemplating what his self-punishment would be when his phone buzzed again. He picked it up with shaking fingers.

**Just promise me that you won't hurt yourself again. For me? xox – Blaine**

A mix of emotions filled Rory as he read this text. And then re-read it. Taking in the full meaning. He didn't know whether it was the 'for me' or the 'xox' that made his heart skip a beat. All he knew was now he couldn't bring himself to hit his arm against the bedrail as he had just been planning to do. If he did, he would be letting Blaine down, and he couldn't do that.

**Ok… – Rory**

He curled up in his bed and thought about Blaine and there new friendship. He had never really paid much attention to Blaine, mostly because he had been to busy following Finn around like a lost puppy, but now regretted it. Blaine was perfect. He was talented, good at giving advice and sympathy, claimed to be trustworthy and he was the kind of guy who wouldn't give up on you. Now that he thought about it, Blaine was perfect boyfriend material. As he though this his stomach gave a little flutter.

_Oh God! You like him!_

That explained everything. Why he felt so happy in Blaine's arms and why he so badly wanted to trust him. Now he thought back to all of their interactions looking for any signs that Blaine might have given him in a hope that the crush was mutual. Mostly he just saw a concerned friend. That was except for his last text, which had been signed with an 'xox'. With that glimmer of hope he allowed himself to fall asleep with anticipation for tomorrow, when he could see Blaine again.

Rory's alarm went off at 6.30am and called him out of bed. Most mornings he would have groaned and hit the snooze button, covering his head with a pillow. But today he was keen to get up and get dressed. Now that he had realised his crush for Blaine he was making extra attempts to look good, so he spent more time than normal choosing his clothes and fixing his hair. Once he was satisfied with his appearance he went downstairs and joined the Pierce's for breakfast.

"Well, you certainly look a lot cheerier than last night." Mrs. Peirce greeted him. "I guess you caught up on your sleep then?"

"Yes ma'am." Rory replied politely, pouring himself a large bowl of cereal and then consumed it entirely in two minutes.

Thirty minutes later Rory was walking down the halls of McKinley with a smile on his face searching for a certain curly haired brunette. He rounded the corner into the hallway that Blaine's locker was in and saw two things. First, he saw Blaine standing with his head in his locker. Second, he saw a bunch of jocks at the other end of the corridor, each with a slushy in their hand. The sight of Blaine caused butterflies in his stomach, but the sight of the jocks quelled them with fear. Not wanting to ruin his perfected appearance he quickly turned around and headed in the opposite direction, as far away from the jocks as he could get. The bell rang and unfortunately he would not be able to see Blaine until lunch now.

The morning was torture for Rory. He spent almost all of it staring at the clock and paid little attention to any of his classes, luckily he wasn't asked any questions by his teachers. When the lunch bell rang he was the first one out the door. He quickly dumped his books in his locker and then ducked into the nearest bathroom to check himself over in the mirror. His game plan today was to test the waters, sit with Blaine, flirt a little and see what his reaction was. He headed off in the direction of the cafeteria in such a happy state that he forgot to check each corridor before he entered for potential bullies. Unfortunately this meant he was halfway down a hallway before he practically ran into Rick 'The Stick'.

"Oi, Leprechaun! Watch where you're going. Who said you were allowed in our corridor?"

Rory braced in anticipation for the oncoming attack. Two of Rick's cronies pushed him down, causing him to slam into the nearest set of lockers. Pain instantly enveloped his head, which had been the main part of his body to hit the metal. Rick and his buddies stared down at him, but Rory didn't give them the satisfaction of a response. Instead he just awkwardly shuffled up and walked in the other direction, out of the hallway. He heard "Good! Now stay out," being yelled after him as he exited the corridor.

His good mood was now ruined. He was forced to walk the long way to the cafeteria. His interaction with his tormentors had brought back all the memories of their previous attacks and now he was upset. He finally reached the door to the cafeteria and paused outside for a moment to collect his thoughts before pushing open the door and stepping into the crowded room. It took him awhile to locate Blaine amongst all of the other students, but he finally noticed his brunette curls across the other side of the room, currently sitting alone. He made his way across the room and sat down so he was facing Blaine. Blaine looked up, startled by Rory's sudden appearance, and smiled his greeting to him.

"Hi Rory. Where have you been, I haven't seen you all day. I was beginning to get worried that you were sick or skipped school or something."

"Me…skip school…never! I'm a good boy." Rory said in his attempt at flirting.

"Haha…okay. Are you feeling better today?" Blaine asked curiously.

"Ah, yeah, I am." Rory said truthfully. Now that he was finally getting to spend some time with Blaine he was doing swell.

Blaine returned to his lunch, taking a bite of his sandwich, before noticing that Rory was just sitting there, staring at him.

"Where's your lunch?" he asked swallowing his mouthful.

Because of the detour he had to take Rory had missed the first half of the lunch period. If he had taken the time to line up and get some food the bell would have rung by the time he finally got to sit with Blaine. He wasn't going to miss the chance to talk to Blaine again, so he chose hunger.

"I ate an apple on the way here." Rory said, thankfully Blaine was more interested in his lunch at that moment to notice his lie.

"Um, how is your wrist? It didn't get…_more hurt_ did it?" Blaine said, unsure on exactly how to approach the subject, not wanting Rory to get upset.

"It's good, not much pain now. And no…ah, no _more _injuries."

Blaine grinned, "Good, I'm glad to hear! I hope there are no more _future_ injuries," he said, looking Rory in the eye to reinforce his point.

Rory nodded.

"Hey Blaine!" called a swiftly approaching voice.

Both boys looked up to see Kurt sauntering towards their table and slid into the seat next to Blaine.

"How are you?" he asked, not even acknowledging Rory's presence.

"Yeah, I'm doing great. How about you?" Blaine responded, a little taken aback by Kurt's enthusiasm.

"Oh Blaine, I'm just peachy." Kurt said flirtatiously.

Rory picked up on Kurt's game quickly; after all it had been exactly what he had been planning on doing.

"So what are you doing on Saturday night?" Kurt said, staring wide eyed at Blaine.

"Ah…nothing." Blaine responded, a little confused.

"Wrong!" Kurt said, playfully hitting Blaine in the arm, "You're coming to the 'Sing-Along Sound of Music' with me! I have an extra ticket."

"Oh, that sounds fun Kurt. I should be able to come. I'll think about it and let you know, okay?" Blaine said, quickly glancing at Rory.

Rory didn't notice Blaine's glance as he was too busy staring down at the table, deep in thought. What just happened? Did Kurt just ask Blaine out on a date? He felt jealousy rise up in him, threatening to escape. Blaine didn't like him, he liked Kurt! It made sense after all, they were the only two openly gay guys at the school and they were allready good friends, of course they had something going on! How could he be so stupid and think that Blaine might have actually been interested in him! He felt like he had been punched in the stomach, and could sense the tears hovering just behind his eyes. He couldn't sit there anymore, so he stood up, excused himself and promptly exited the room.

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><p><strong>AN:**

**I want to know from you guys what you want to see in their relationship when it finally develops. How far do you want them to go? Are you happy with them just being a couple and kissing, or are you keen for a sex scene. ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:**

**So this chapter turned out a lot longer than I planned, this is only th first half of what was orginially going to be in this chapter. Sorry it is taking me so long to update, I have been busy. And I'm also a perfectionist and refuse to publish any work unless I am completly satisfied with it. **

**Normally I am against singing scenes in Glee fics becasue they are usually tacky, but I have included one in this chapter (hopefully its not too bad) becasue I felt it was the best way to depict the story. The song is called 'Tell Me I'm Alright' by Chris Tidd. It is pretty unlikely that any of you will know this song as he is unsigned. But I looked at a lot of other songs that I could have put in and this one was the best fit. I find it hard to imagine singing fics unless I know the song, so here is a link to the song I am using if you want to check it out.**

www. saytunes. com/song/SAUS-6U26L5 **(without the spaces)**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Rory spent his afternoon classes and the ride home in silence. He went straight up to his room, not even bothering to get any afternoon tea. He tried not to think about his problems, focusing instead on his homework.<p>

At 6pm there was a soft knock on his door and it opened to reveal Mrs. Pierce. "Hello Rory. How was your day?"

Rory sat up and faced his host mother, "It was okay."

"Yeah? Is everything all right? You certainly don't look as cheery as you did this morning?" She asked showing concern.

"Oh, yeah. I'm just, ah…feeling a little home sick." That was a lie. He hadn't been homesick at all while he had been here. Well, he had missed Ireland, but he certainly hadn't missed his home or his family. He felt much happier in this home, even though he was just a guest he was made to feel like part of the family. And there was so much love in this house, they all actually cared for each other. It had actually been a little shocking when he first arrived, he didn't think that families like this actually existed.

Mrs. Pierce came and sat next to Rory. "Aw, you poor thing." She said, grabbing hold of his hand. "Have you talked to your family recently? I can help you call them if you want." She offered sweetly.

Rory laughed internally. The last thing he wanted to do was call his family. Well, actually, he wouldn't mind speaking to his brother, but he wouldn't be able to get out of talking to his parents if he did that, so he hadn't bothered.

"Thanks ma'am, but I think I'll be more homesick if I call them." He said politely.

"Okay, if you want to talk just find me. Or maybe you will feel more comfortable talking to Brittany, I'm sure she wouldn't mind." She said as she stood up, preparing to leave.

"Yeah, okay, thanks."

"You're welcome, sweetie. Now, I came up here to tell you that dinner is almost ready."

"Oh, thanks ma'am, but I think I will just skip dinner tonight, if that's okay? I'm not feeling hungry." That was another lie, he hadn't eaten since breakfast.

"You sure? If you get hungry later there will be plenty of leftovers. Come and help yourself, okay?"

"Okay."

Rory watched her leave the room and heard her go into Brittany's room to tell her dinner was ready.

Rory was hungry, but he found the ache in his stomach somewhat comforting. It satisfied his need for pain, for punishment. He was so angry at himself for being a fool, for being jealous and most importantly, for being so emotional about it all. He felt like he was cheating his way around his promise to Blaine. He had promised Blaine he wouldn't hurt his 'arms' again, this was different. He wasn't even physically doing anything to himself, it was what he wasn't doing that was the cause of his punishment. By the time Rory was ready for bed the huger pains had really kicked in. The constant pain reminding him that he wasn't good enough.

Rory woke up in tears, not sure whether it was the nightmare or his growling stomach that caused his stirring. He had been dreaming about his past again. He picked up his phone to check the time. 4.26am. It was another two hours until he had to get up, but he was fully awake and absolutely starving. He felt that his skin was drawn taught across stomach. Unable to sleep he opened up his laptop and chose to watch a couple of episodes of Doctor Who to pass his time. By 6am the sun had come up and Rory put away his laptop, got up and got dressed. He went down to the kitchen, where Mrs. Pierce was, and sat at the bench.

"Good morning. You're up early." She cheerfully greeted him.

"Yeah, I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep." Rory replied.

The woman finished spreading her toast and came and sat next to him.

"Are you feeling better this morning?" she asked carefully.

"Oh…yes, I am. Thanks." He replied, remembering his excuse from last night.

"You must be hungry; did you end up having any dinner last night? Do you want me to get you something?" she asked concerned.

"Ah, no, I fell asleep pretty quickly. Don't worry, I'll get myself something." Rory said as he slid off his stool and walked around the bench into the kitchen. He had decided that he would have some breakfast, afraid he would actually pass out if he didn't eat. After perusing the pantry and fridge, he finally settled on a large apple. He took it back up to his room and slowly ate it, physically feeling the bites travel down to his eager stomach. Feeling slightly more energised he was ready to leave for school.

Rory didn't get the chance to see Blaine during the day, much to his disappointment. He had spent his lunch period in the library, not wanting to be in the cafeteria surrounded by the smell of food. Rory had used up all the energy from the apple he had eaten for breakfast and the hunger pains were returning. He could feel the effect it was having on his body. He felt physically weaker and got light headed if he stood up too fast.

Fortunately glee club rehearsal was on that afternoon after school which guaranteed him some Blaine time, even if he did have to share it with everybody else. Rory eagerly made his way to the choir room after the final bell rang. He entered the room to find half of the group already present, including a very sexy looking Blaine. Kurt was sitting next to Blaine, showing him something on his iPhone. Blaine was staring at the phone, smiling at whatever was on it, but looked up when Rory entered the room and greeted him.

"Rory! How've you been? Come sit next to me." He patted the spare chair next to him.

Rory smiled back and did as he was told, happy that Blaine was not solely devoted to Kurt. Kurt on the other hand was now sporting a look of jealousy. He reached over and grabbed Blaine's hand, seeking his attention, and asked, "So Blaine, are you coming with me to Sound of Music? We can even dress up. I think you would look hot in lederhosen."

Blaine stifled a shocked laugh, "Ahhh…I don't know. I'm still not sure if I am free."

Kurt frowned, unhappy with Blaine's answer. He plastered a pout onto his face and leaned on Blaine's shoulder, looking up at him.

"Please…..I don't want to go all by myself. That will be no fun!"

Blaine was about to respond, but Mr. Shuester strode into the room at that moment.

"Okay team, pay attention. We have three days until competition. We need to stay focused. Everybody to the auditorium, I want to do a run through of the numbers."

The group stood and gathered their belongings and moved through the halls until they reached the auditorium and made their way up onto the stage. Mr. Shue sat at the desk in the middle of the room.

"Okay, Blaine and Rachel's duet is first, then everybody comes on for the group number." Mr. Shue directed.

Rory and the majority of New Directions left the stage, leaving Blaine and Rachel to position themselves for their duet. Rory stood in the wings watching. As they begun to sing Rory stared in awe at Blaine. He had never heard anybody so talented. He couldn't draw his eyes off Blaine, who was moving around stage with Rachel. He imagined that he was out there instead. Singing with Blaine. Dancing with Blaine. Holding Blaine's hand. Staring into his beautiful, dark eyes. Rory's fantasy was cut short by a sudden, cold voice behind him.

"I know your game."

Rory turned around and saw Kurt standing there with his arms folded across his chest.

Rory was confused, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You like him. I can see it. You have a goofy face whenever you look at him. Don't even try to deny it." Kurt said in a hushed tone so their teammates wouldn't hear.

"I…"

"You need to back off." Kurt interrupted him.

"What?" Rory was shocked.

"Oh, you heard me. I said, back off. We have been flirting all year, and I finally ask him on a date and all of a sudden you pop up and try and steal him from me."

Rory didn't know what to say, he just stood there with his mouth hanging slightly open.

"You're wasting your time anyway. You are not his type." Kurt continued his tirade.

Rory could feel his heart sink at Kurt's last sentence.

The duet was drawing to a close and Kurt and Rory were interrupted by the remainder of the group organising themselves into position in the side of the wings. Rory tried to push all of his thoughts about Blaine and Kurt away so he could concentrate on the performance; he really didn't want to mess this up. Their cue sounded and they moved onstage to their positions.

Three minutes later their music ended and the New Directions were formed into their end pose, chests heaving for air. Mr. Shue stood up and gave them a round of applause.

"Woo! That was great. Perfect. If you do that good on Friday there is no doubt in my mind that we are going to have a first place trophy!"

The group begun to move around, talking excitedly about the competition. Rory stood still, still trying to catch his breath. He felt light headed and was trying not to fall over. Fearing that he would stack it if he didn't stabilise himself he lowered himself to the floor, pretended to stretch his legs muscles. He had no energy left in his body, having only eaten an apple in the last 32 hours.

Mr. Shuester had walked up to the stage now and said, "Okay, that is enough for today. I don't want to overwork you. Save all your talent for Friday, yeah?"

Everybody nodded.

"Great! See you all tomorrow."

Kurt looked down to Rory, smirked and then pulled Blaine towards him.

"Hey Blaine, have you decided if you're free yet?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess so. It does sound fun, and I'd feel bad if you had to go by yourself."

Kurt squealed with delight and hugged Blaine. He glared down at Rory over Blaine's shoulder. Rory just sat there fighting the urge to cry, feeling his heart break. Blaine pulled away from Kurt and begun to walk off stage, Kurt following intently. "But I'm not dressing up. You can, if you want, but I think I'll be fine in my own clothes." Rory heard Blaine say as the pair headed off up the stairs.

"Rory. Do you need a ride home?"

Rory turned his head to see Finn staring down at him with Rachel stuck to his side.

"Oh, yes please. That would be great." Rory said, genuinely glad because he didn't think he would be able to make it home if he walked. He tried to get up, but didn't make it far before he fell back down. Finn stuck out his hand and Rory gladly accepted it and used it to help pull himself up. "Thanks."

Rory was silent the whole ride home, not that he would have gotten many words in anyway with Rachel there. He got out, thanked Finn for the ride and went inside.

He tried to do his math homework, but his conversation with Kurt was replaying in his head, over and over again. What was affecting him the most was Kurt's last sentence, 'You're not his type'. And then Blaine had accepted Kurt's date. He was over being angry at himself, like he had been the night before. Now he was just content to be miserable and wallow in self-pity. He was never going to have Blaine because he wasn't good enough. He wasn't good enough for anybody. He was worthless and would be better off just leaving Blaine and everybody else alone. Rory's pity party was interrupted by Brittneys sudden appearance.

"Dinner's ready Rory!"

Rory slowly made his way downstairs. He sat at the table with the Pierces and put on his happy face. Mrs. Pierce had cooked roast chicken with mash potatoes and vegetables for dinner and while his host family dug into theirs Rory sat there drawing patterns in his potatoes with his fork. It wasn't that Rory was refusing to eat. He had actually planned on eating dinner, fearing that he would pass out if he didn't fill his stomach. But he just didn't feel like eating, he was so upset. He did shovel a few mouthfuls of carrot and some potato into his mouth after he spotted Mrs. Pierce eyeing him suspiciously, but he really couldn't bring himself to eat much more, feeling physically sick. After dinner he finished his homework, showered and then collapsed onto his bed feeling exhausted from his early morning, long day and lack of energy. He was asleep within minutes.

They were all sitting in the choir room chatting. All except for Rory that was, he was in the back corner arguing with himself. He had decided to take some advice he had been given and begin to share his emotions with other people instead of bottling them up inside him. Finally believing he could trust the glee club he had chosen to sing a song to help him express how he was feeling. Maybe then they would understand him and try to help him. Hopefully he would begin to feel better about himself. Now he was just trying to find the confidence to get up there and actually go through with his plan. He took a shaky breath and stood up, made his way to the front of the room and announced, "I have something I want to share. I have had a rough past, and…uh…I have been struggling with depression for a while now. I have always had a hard time…expressing my emotions. But I picked a song to sing that I hope explains what I'm feeling."

His fellow members looked at him a little surprise by his sudden rant, but politely paid attention to him. Rory grabbed the guitar and put it on, took a deep breath and began to play.

_Can't you see me here?_

_I'm beside myself; I'm all alone once again,_

_And you don't care, you don't care._

Rory looked around the room to survey the reaction from his teammates. He was shocked to find that most seemed disinterested. Kurt had even gotten out his phone and was texting. He continued on, determined to express himself.

A simple cheer up won't do,

_My heart is broken in two,_

_I'm lost with nothing left of me to find._

Rory looked around the room to survey the reaction from his teammates. He was shocked to find that most seemed disinterested. Kurt had even gotten out his phone and was texting. He continued on, determined to express himself.

_So come look into my eyes,_

_And tell me I'm alright._

_As these tears roll down my face,_

_Please don't leave me here again._

_Come reach into my heart,_

_Try and tell me I'm doing just fine,_

_As you feel the brokenness that's pulling apart my life._

He looked around again, noticing that Mike and Tina had moved closer in together and started playing with eachother's hands. Rory was offended. Here he was, finally opening up to people, and they were just ignoring him.

_You come along,_

_With your sickening smile to tell me I'll be just fine._

_That the pain will soon subside,_

_But you're full of shit,_

_Won't you just take off the mask?_

Even Mr. Shue was looking bored and had started playing with the end of his tie. Behind him Rachel and Finn had begun to try and communicate using a made up sign language.

_So come look into my eyes,_

_And tell me I'm alright._

_As these tears roll down my face,_

_Please don't leave me here again._

_Come reach into my heart,_

_Try and tell me I'm doing just fine,_

_As you feel the brokenness that's pulling apart my life._

What hurt him the most was seeing Blaine pull out his phone, stare at it for a moment, look across the room at Kurt and then grin. He then returned his attention back to his phone and started to type a reply. This had been a stupid idea. Why was he doing this? Nobody cared about him! He was stupid to think that they would care. He should just leave everybody alone. Rory belted out the final lines, holding back tears.

_So hear me now._

_Don't look away._

_I'm crying out._

_Just to be heard._

He finished his song and everybody suddenly drew back to attention, giving him quiet, polite clap. Mr. Shuester jumped out of his chair and moved to the front of the room.

"Good job." He said patting Rory on the back. "Let's move on!"

Rory was upset at his 'friends' utter disinterest in him or his pain. He couldn't stay in the room any longer and set down the guitar and walked out. Nobody uttered a goodbye or questioned his sudden exit, nor did anybody follow him. He strode out of the school and walked the streets of Lima for hours, watching the sun slowly go down, thinking about how messed up he was. He was a burden on everybody he was attached to. Life would be greater for everybody if he just didn't exist. With this in mind he made his way to the overpass on the main street and sat on the edge, staring down at the passing cars meters below him. He slid off the rail so he was standing precariously on the little ledge on the side of the bridge, holding onto the rail for support. He was just doing the world a favour, nobody would miss him. Cars drove past him, but nobody stopped or gave him a second look. He took a deep breath and let go, feeling the rush of the wind all over his body as he fell through the air towards the black ground metres beneath him.

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><p><strong>AN:**

**It could take another week to update as what I have planned for the next scenes has to be perfect.**

**Thanks for all of the reviews BTW! They make me happy. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**

**Hey everybody, I have a few apologies.**

**First, sorry for ending it on such a cliffhanger. :)**

**Second, if it confused anybody, I'm sorry, I hope it will make sense when you read this chapter.**

**Third, sorry for resolving the cliffhanger in the most clichéd and cheesy way… **

**Enjoy. :D**

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><p>Rory woke with a start, thrashing around on his bed. It took him a moment to understand what had just happened. That was one of the scariest dreams he had ever had. It scared him that he had dreamt about such a thing as suicide. Sure he had briefly thought about it before, but he had never seriously considered it. He knew that he was feeling depressed, but to have dreams about suicide was new and terrifying.<p>

He lay there for a long time until his alarm went off, thinking over what the dream meant. When he did get up he wasn't even able to eat. He was silent on the ride to school and walked through the corridors at a slow pace until he finally rounded the corner towards his own locker. He was surprised to see Blaine leaning against it. The sight of Blaine arms, which were currently wrapped around his first period textbook, made Rory desire nothing more than to be wrapped in them now, surrounded by the feeling of safety that he usually felt. It was the only place where he had felt totally safe in a long time and all he needed now was that feeling.

Blaine looked up and noticed Rory coming down the hallway. He raised a hand and gave an enthusiastic wave. Rory tried to smile back, but he couldn't. Blaine stood up off Rory's locker when Rory finally reached him and greeted him with a 'good morning'. Rory couldn't hold back anymore, he dropped his bag and drove himself onto Blaine, wrapping his arms around Blaine and burying his face in his neck, starting to cry. Blaine was slightly taken aback, but returned the hug, noticing the stares from other students who were in the corridor.

"Rory, what's wrong?" he asked quietly, not caring what any of the other students thought.

"I'm so scared." Rory whispered almost inaudibly before letting out a sob.

Blaine patted the boys head soothingly.

"What do you mean you're scared? Is somebody threatening you? Are you scared of somebody?" Blaine asked trying to understand.

Rory nodded, his face still buried in Blaine's neck, his crying subsiding.

"Who? Who is it?"

Rory took a deep breath before uttering, "I'm scared of…myself. And what I might do."

Blaine grasped Rory's shoulders and pushed him backwards so that he could look into his face. It broke his heart to see Rory's face like this. His normally bright blue eyes were a much darker shade and filled with fear. His tears had left water trails down his cheeks. His mouth was still quivering, as if he were holding back sobs.

Rory already felt a little better now that he had told somebody. He was proud of himself for speaking up and seeking help. He had gone all his life without seeking help for any of his problems because he had always been afraid of how others would react or that they would turn their backs on him. But for whatever reason, he trusted Blaine and knew that he could help him.

Blaine could hear whispering all around them and could feel many pairs of eyes locked onto him and Rory. He picked Rory's bag up off the floor, took his hand and walked out of the corridor, through the next one and stopped at his own locker. He undid the lock, put away his books and grabbed his bag before slamming the door shut. He then recaptured Rory's hand and led him out the front door and around into the car park.

"Where are we going? What about class? First period starts any minute now." Rory asked.

Blaine stopped and faced Rory, taking his other hand in his, and said, "Rory, I care much more about my friend's wellbeing than my attendance record."

Rory smiled lightly as Blaine pulled him in for another hug. It was only a short embrace, but it assured Rory that Blaine really did want to help him.

Blaine led Rory to his car and opened the passenger door for him. Rory got in and watched as Blaine rounded the car and got in the driver's seat, turned on the engine and began to back out of the parking spot. Once they were out of the car park and onto the street Blaine spoke.

"I'm taking you to my house. It's a much better place to talk than school. We won't be interrupted. Okay?"

Rory nodded.

"Good. Now, you said you're scared of what you might do. Is that right?"

Rory nodded again.

"Can you tell me about it? What is it exactly you're scared you will do? Does it have anything to do with hurting yourself like before?"

Rory nodded yet again before saying, "I had a dream."

"A dream?" Blaine glanced at Rory and saw the look of fear return to his face. He took his right hand off the wheel and held Rory's giving it an encouraging squeeze and said, "Can you tell me about it?"

Rory then recounted the whole dream to Blaine who listened intently, becoming more and more shocked as the story progressed. By the time Blaine pulled into his driveway Rory had reached the part when he was sitting on the bridge. Blaine turned the car off and turned to face Rory and listen to the end of his tale.

"And I stood on the edge of the bridge and looked down. Nobody tried to stop me. And then I just jumped."

Blaine's mouth hung open in shock as he pictured such an event.

"That was when I woke up. But now I'm really scared Blaine. I'm scared that things might get so bad that I will actually try and do this." He said, fresh tears beginning to form in his eyes.

Blaine smiled and leaned over the console to give the boy another hug.

"I'm so glad you told me, Rory. Come inside and will talk about it."

They got out of the car, let themselves in and went into Blaine's room.

"So have you really been feeling that depressed lately?" Blaine questioned now that they were settled down onto his bed.

"I told you about my past, I've been struggling with depression for a long time now, though I have never ever talked to anybody about it. I've never seriously thought about killing myself though. But now I'm scared that things are going to get worse and I will try."

Blaine let this sink in for a moment before saying, "Okay, first, if you ever do feel that bad or start thinking about it, please, I beg you, come and talk to me. Or somebody else you trust."

He paused and looked at Rory for confirmation that he had heard, understood and accepted this. Rory nodded.

"Second, from what I gather from your recount of the dream, it focused a lot on everybody ignoring you. You said that we all disinterested in your song, we were texting and distracted. When you left nobody followed you. And when you were on the bridge nobody tried to stop you."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Please believe me when I say that there are a lot of people who care about you." Blaine looked Rory straight in the eye. "If you chose to sing a song like that we would all listen intently. We would all care about what it meant. And if you ran out of class after it, we would all worry and go after you. I mean it."

Rory smiled weakly and thought hard for a moment. "I think I have a hard time believing people care about me and stuff because of my parents. I mean, parents are supposed to love you no matter what and care about everything you do. I used to just think that was a fairytale facade invented for stories, but living with Brittany and seeing how much her parents love her…it blew my mind. They treat me better than I've ever been treated by my parents, and I'm not even their son! I always knew my parents were bad, but never realised just how bad until now."

Blaine moved closer to Rory, putting his arm around the younger boy in comfort.

"You're probably right. You did get a tough deal with your parents. The way they treat you is horrible."

Rory nodded and placed his head on Blaine's shoulder. They sat in silence for a while, comfortable in their intimate position. It was Blaine who broke the silence.

"I think you should see somebody about your depression."

Rory lifted his head off Blaine's shoulder and looked at him.

"I know you're scared to talk to others about it, I know. But if you're having dreams about suicide and have been self-harming you do need help. Help that I can't give you Rory."

Rory lowered his head with shame as Blaine brought up his self-harm.

"Miss Pillsbury, she's the guidance counselor, is really nice. She knows the New Directions rather well. I'm sure she could help you."

Seeing the pleading look in Blaine's eyes Rory nodded his head. He didn't like to admit it, but he knew that Blaine was right.

"Also, I think maybe if you opened up a little bit to the glee club, our friends, you might not feel so alone or unwanted. I understand that you have trouble sharing your emotions, you keep them very protected, but if you share some of your problems with them you will see how much they do care about you."

"I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. I don't like telling people my secrets because I don't want them to judge me." Rory said nervously.

"Come on, nobody in glee will judge you, we all accept each other, you've seen that." Blaine gave Rory a squeeze. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to though. But maybe you could start by sharing just a small secret."

Rory sighed and said, "Okay, I'll think about it."

"Good!" Blaine let go of Rory and stood up off his bed. He walked over to his desk and put some music on before returning to his previous position next to Rory. "Are you feeling better?"

Rory thought for a moment. "Yeah. I really am. I feel like part of my burden has lifted off my shoulders."

"I'm so glad to hear that!" Blaine said grinning.

They sat for another minute in silence.

"So, what are we going to do now? Are we going back to school?" Rory asked.

Blaine shook his head. "No, just forget about school today, we aren't going back. We can hang out here. That is if you want to? We can listen to music, practice singing, watch a movie, bake a cake? What do you feel like doing?"

Rory smiled at the thought of getting to spend the whole day with Blaine. "I don't mind, as long as it doesn't involve using a lot of energy. I'm really tired."

"Oh, why are you so tired? Haven't you been sleeping well?"

"Ah…yeah…some nights I don't sleep well. And I'm getting pretty tired and sore from all the rehearsals."

"I understand, my muscles have been sore from dancing too. I'm told I give good massages. If you want I can give you one, it'll help relax your muscles and get rid of some tension." Blaine said and shifted so that he was sitting behind Rory, his legs spread out on either side.

Rory blushed at the thought of Blaine's hands rubbing his body. Thankful that Blaine couldn't see his now red face, Rory nodded. "Yes please."

Blaine started massaging Rory's shoulders, starting gently, but slowly getting harder as he began to work a knot out of his back muscle. Rory was feeling really good for the first time in a while from the combination of finally sharing some of his pent up emotions and the fact that Blaine was giving him a massage.

Blaine stopped suddenly. "Hey Rory, your shirt keeps getting in the way, can you take it off?"

Rory immediately felt uneasy again. "Um, I don't really want to…"

"Why not, it will make the massage bet…oh. I'm sorry, I completely forgot." Blaine wrapped his arms around Rory's waist and pulled him into a hug from behind, resting his head on his back. "I know you probably don't like looking at your arms, and you don't want me to see them again, but I really don't care. I won't judge you Rory."

Blaine waited for a response which never came. Rory had become silent.

"Do you not want me to see them because there have been new additions?" Blaine asked cautiously.

Rory, suddenly energetic, shook his head. "No, defiantly no new additions, I swear! I promised you I wouldn't! In fact they look so much better right now; a lot of them have healed. I just feel self-conscious about it, you know."

Blaine moved his hands around until he found one of Rory's buttons. "Like I said, I won't judge you. It won't bother me, okay?" He began to undo the buttons one by one until his shirt was left hanging open.

Rory's heart was racing as Blaine undressed him. He had dreamed of this situation, but never expected it to actually happen, especially after Kurt had come into the picture. Blaine slipped the shirt backwards off his shoulders and down his arms until it was free. He tossed it to the floor and returned to his massage.

"That's better, now I can really get to your muscles."

Rory smiled and closed his eyes, focusing on just how good Blaine's hands felt against his skin.

They continued like this for five minutes, Blaine making his way around to different parts of Rory's back.

"I'm getting hungry, what do you think we should have for lunch?" Blaine asked.

At the very thought of lunch Rory's stomach made a loud, needy, gurgling sound. He quickly pressed his hands to his stomach, hoping to muffle the sounds that clearly announced how hungry it was.

Blaine stopped his massage. "By the sounds of it, you're very hungry. Did you not eat breakfast or something?"

"I was too scared to eat this morning…"

"So you haven't eaten since last night?" Blaine asked as he moved around so he was sitting next to Rory again, looking into his face.

Rory nodded, unable to look Blaine in the eye. It wasn't a lie; he had eaten at dinner last night. But he felt so ashamed about his current eating habits. The worst part was that he knew it was wrong, but he kept doing it anyway. He didn't want Blaine to know, he would get angry at him.

"Why do you look so ashamed? There is something that you're not telling me, I can tell. Don't try to deny it."

Rory tried to look up into Blaine's eyes and tell him that everything was fine, but as soon as he met those dark eyes he had to look away. He had never seen Blaine's eyes look so serious, they would see right through any lie he told.

"I don't want to talk about it." he finally blurted out, folding his arms protectively over his chest and looking away.

Blaine reached over, grabbed Rory's chin and forced his head back around to face his. "Rory, please tell me."

Rory's eyes were beginning to water as he shook his head. "I can't tell you."

Blaine's mouth opened slightly in shock. "Why can't you tell me?"

Rory tried to look away, his lip quivering, but Blaine held his face in place. Rory let out a sob and a tear fell down from his eye, trickling down his face. "You're going to be angry at me."

"No, I won't be angry." Blaine said seriously concerned about what could make Rory act like this. "I promise. Please, just tell me."

Rory took some deep breaths, trying to calm himself. "I promised you I would stop hitting myself as punishment. And I did, I swear. I tried not to, but I found a new form of punishment. I stopped eating…the hunger pains…it hurts me…" Rory could finish his explanation as his crying had overtaken again.

Blaine stared at the boy in shock. "Rory…" He didn't know what to say. Instead he wrapped his arms around the crying boy once again and tried to shush him.

Once Rory had calmed down again Blaine said, "I'm not angry, a little disappointed maybe, but not angry. You need to eat Rory. You're going to make yourself pass out."

"I nearly did…" Rory admitted.

Blaine stroked some of Rory's messed up hair back into place. "What were you punishing yourself for this time?"

Rory had to think about how to word his answer before finally deciding on, "Because I began to like somebody who obviously didn't like me back, it was foolish."

"Who was it? A girl or boy?"

"Boy."

"Somebody I know?"

Rory was growing nervous. "Uh…yes."

"Okay, well the only boys that we both know are in the glee club, right? I can't imagine it would be Puck, Mike or Artie. I don't see them as your type." Rory nodded. "Is it Kurt? I guess that is the most obvious choice." Rory shook his head. "No? Okay, you're close with Finn, is it him?" Again Rory shook his head. "So Sam then?"

"No, but I have to admit, he is good to look at…"

"But I went through everybody! You said he was in the glee club, who is it?"

Rory sighed. "It's you, Blaine. I really like you, okay! But you like Kurt, and he likes you, so yeah…" he said standing up preparing to leave, not wanting to hang around after he got rejected.

Blaine sat with a shocked expression on his face as Rory picked up his shirt and put it back on. As he was about to do up the buttons Blaine stood up to join him, fisted his hands into Rory's open shirt and backed him into the nearest wall. Rory was taken aback by this action and opened his mouth to ask Blaine what he was doing. His question was interrupted by Blaine lips on his own. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but it was deep, passionate and felt electric. When Blaine pulled away Rory was speechless.

"I don't like Kurt. He's a good friend, but I really don't see him in that way. I've only had eyes for one guy for a while now, and that's you. But I didn't think that you were interested. Until now that is…" Blaine admitted.

Rory's eyes grew wide, as did his smile. "Really?"

Blaine nodded. 'Yes, now let's get you some lunch."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:**

**Hello! I want to thank everybody who is still reading my story.** **Especially to those who have been reviewing. All reviews are greatly appreciated and motivate me to write more chapters. :)**

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><p>The boys moved into the kitchen, both giddy with happiness. Blaine insisted on making hamburgers, saying that it would fix Rory's hunger. After cooking and assembling the burgers they returned to Blaine's room to eat. Rory sat back on the bed and Blaine sat in his desk chair, turned around to face Rory.<p>

"So when exactly did you start liking me?" Blaine asked, then took a bite out of his burger.

Rory swallowed his mouthful, "Um, since the weekend really…we hadn't actually had a conversation before then. But after everything that happened between us on those two days I realised how quickly I felt comfortable around you, how safe I felt when I was near you and how you were basically...perfect."

"Awwwww. You think I'm perfect? You're so sweet." Blaine said with a smile. "Why did you think I liked Kurt though?"

"You two are good friends and you're always together. I mean, you're the only gay guys at the school, well, the only openly gay guys. And most importantly, when Kurt asked you out, you said yes. Why did you say yes if you claim to have had a crush on me?"

"I do have a crush on you Rory. Kurt really is just a friend, I swear. We are good friends because we can relate to each other in a way that almost everybody else can't. I said yes because he wouldn't stop bugging me if I didn't, and it did sound fun."

"You do know that he likes you right? Like, really likes you." Rory said before taking another bite of his burger.

"Uh, yeah, I had kinda guessed that he might have a little crush on me, he is rather flirty with me. But I figured that he can't want me that bad since he hadn't acted on it yet." Blaine took another bite before coming to a sudden realisation and asking with his mouth full of burger, "Wait, how do you know that he likes me?"

Rory was unsure whether he should tell Blaine about the conversation Kurt had had with him. He decided against it. "Um, I just noticed how he acts around you. I mean, I was there when he asked you out remember, as if you couldn't pick it up from that alone…"

"I guess you're right."

Both boys returned to their burgers. Rory was consuming his at a fast pace and could feel it filling his previously empty stomach. He swallowed his last mouthful and took a big drink from his cup; Blaine was only halfway through his.

After a couple of minutes of thought Rory asked, "Blaine, what are we now?"

"What exactly do you mean?"

"Uh…I mean, I like you, and you like me and then we kissed…what does that make us?"

Blaine thought about this for a moment as he swallowed the last mouthful of his burger. "Well, I don't really know. I mean, kissing somebody doesn't automatically make you something. And I wouldn't normally consider somebody my boyfriend unless we have gone on a date or two."

"Oh, okay." Rory said felling a little disappointed.

Blaine saw Rory's disappointment and got up off his seat and knelt down in front of Rory seizing his hand. Rory looked down at Blaine a little shocked.

"Rory Flanagan, would you go on a date with me?" Blaine said with a grin.

Rory blushed and then nodded. "Yes, I would love to."

Blaine got up and moved so he was straddling Rory's legs, wrapping his arms around the younger boy's neck. Rory put his hands on Blaine waist to steady him and their faces inched closer until their lips connected. The kiss steady grew more passionate as their lips molded to one another's. Rory allowed the muscle gently prodding his lips entry. Blaine pushed forwards, causing Rory to fall backwards onto the bed with Blaine resting on top of him. Their tongues began to battle with each other as their kiss remained unbroken. Rory moved his hands up, feeling Blaine's soft skin until they reached his hair where his finger curled, grabbing hold of the dark locks. Blaine's hands travelled in the other direction, first slipping under Rory's shirt and feeling up and down his stomach before coming to a rest on the Irishman's hips. After a few minutes of this Rory felt the need for air and pulled away from Blaine.

"That was hot." Rory said with a smile, trying to catch his breath.

Blaine returned the smile and nodded in agreement.

The pair spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know each other better. They were so caught up in each other that time had slipped past them until they realised it was almost five o'clock and Rory had been expected home a while ago. Blaine drove Rory home giving him a quick kiss goodbye before Rory got out of the car and walked inside.

As soon as he shut the door a voiced called out from the kitchen.

"Rory? Is that you?"

"Yes." Rory followed the voice into the kitchen where he found Mrs. Pierce cutting vegetables. She put down her knife and gave Rory a hug.

"Where have you been all afternoon?"

"Oh, I was at a friend's house. I'm sorry, I should have called you." Rory said giving an apologetic smile.

"Okay. I thought that might be the case, but I tried to call you and you didn't answer the phone. It had me a little worried because Brittany said she didn't see you in math today. But knowing her, she probably just wasn't paying attention, right?"

Rory laughed, "Yeah, probably." He didn't want to tell her the truth, that he hadn't been at school all day. But she would ask too many questions. He pulled his phone out of his bag to find it flat. "Oh, my battery ran out. That would be why I didn't answer, sorry."

"That's okay. Next time, just remember to call if you going to be home late. Dinner will be ready in an hour."

Rory ran upstairs to his room, plugged his phone into the charger, and started working on the homework he didn't finish the night before. He had missed a day of class and couldn't afford to get too far behind. He managed to get in the zone and knock off yesterday's and what he assumed would have been today's math homework and start on his history homework before dinner was announced.

Rory happily devoured his dinner and helped wash the dishes before returning to his homework. His study was interrupted by the buzz of his phone. He picked it up and smiled when the words **1 New Message – Blaine** appeared on the screen. He opened it up and read.

**Hey, did you get caught for skipping school today? I'm really sorry if you did, but I thought it was necessary. What do you want to do for our date tomorrow? xox –B**

**No I didn't get caught, Mrs. Pierce did question why I was home so late though. I don't know where the popular date destinations are here in Lima, what do you suggest? xo –R**

**Okay, sorry again. Breadstix is the restaurant of choice for dates, although it is highly populated and there is a very high chance we would be seen there. How do you feel about the publicity of our relationship? – B**

**Oh, yeah, I hadn't even thought of that. Um, I don't think I'm ready for everybody to know. Can we go somewhere less out in the open? – R**

**I understand. Why don't we go to the movies, it will be dark inside so nobody will see. :) – B**

**That sounds great, can't wait! :D – R**

**Ok. Have a good sleep, cya tomorrow. xoxo – B**

Rory slept well that night, without any haunting dreams, and woke feeling refreshed and happy. He had a quick breakfast, hoping to get to school early so he could spend a little time with Blaine before class began. Unfortunately Brittany was running late and instead of Rory being early, he was five minutes late to first period earning him a scowl from the teacher. The morning went by as Rory patiently waited for lunchtime when he could see Blaine. When the bell rang Rory raced out of class towards his locker. He was pleased to find Blaine waiting for him there when he reached it.

"Hey, how are you?" Blaine asked as Rory opened his locker and stowed his books.

"I'm grand. Feeling really good today. Excited for tonight!" Rory answered, beginning towards the cafeteria. "What about you?"

"I'm good, excited too." Blaine stopped Rory from moving by tugging on his arm. "I brought lunch for both of us from home. Let's go eat outside, it will be more private."

Rory smiled at the gesture and followed Blaine outside to a patch of grass that was out of the way of most of the other students. They sat down and Blaine took out two sandwiches and two cans of soft drink and handed one of each to Rory.

"So, I want to talk to you about something. I went and saw to Miss Pillsbury this morning before class. Don't get mad at me for telling her, but I said you were having a tough time. I didn't tell her exactly what the problem is, that is not mine to tell, but I said you would really benefit from talking to her."

Rory was a little shocked. He knew that they had talked about seeing the guidance counselor yesterday, but had forgotten about it since.

"She said that she would be happy to meet with you in your free period after lunch."

The thought of having somebody he didn't really know ask him questions about his problems made Rory anxious.

"I don't know. I'm feeling a lot better today. I think I will be fine."

"Rory, you are not getting out of it that easily. You agreed yesterday when we talked that you needed to talk to somebody about it. Please go see her. At least, just for today's session." Blaine looked at Rory with pleading eyes.

"Oh, fine, okay. If it will make you happy." Rory said, unable to resist Blaine's expression.

"Great. She will be in her office, you know where that is right?"

Rory nodded in response. The bell signaling the end of lunch rang and both boys got up and cleaned up their mess.

"I'll see you at rehearsal after school. You can tell me how your talk went." Blaine said.

"Yeah, okay." Rory said as the pair headed back towards the school building.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Are you still good for our date tonight?"

Rory smiled and nodded.

"Awesome, I'll pick you up at seven." Blaine quickly glanced around before giving Rory a brief, but intimate, hug and then ran off to class.

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><p><strong>AN:**

**Hey, so sorry this chapter wasn't as exciting as the others, but I had to set up the next few chapters. The next chapter will be better, Rory is going to talk to the New Directions and then they are going on their date. :D**

**Have a nice day!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:**

**Hello! I had so much fun writing this chapter, it is one of my favouite so far! I really hope you enjoy it too. It's got bits of everything including a psycho Kurt. :)**

**Also, I got sick of Mrs. Pierce not having a name. It felt weird that Rory would always call her Mrs. Pierce so I have named her Mary. **

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><p>Rory headed through the still populated halls, taking caution to avoid potential bullies, making his way towards Miss Pillsbury's office. Her door was open, but her back was turned as she was organising her pamphlets. Rory knocked shyly on the open door to announce his presence.<p>

"Oh, hello Rory. I'm so glad you came. Blaine said you might protest." Emma said turning around to face him. She gestured for him to take a seat, Rory complied. After straightening her last stack of pamphlets she moved around her desk to take the seat next to Rory, turning it to face him. "Now, as you probably know, Blaine came to talk to me this morning. He was very concerned about you. He said that you needed some guidance."

"Guidance…is that how he put it? The way he put it to me was 'You need professional help'." Rory said, a little bit bitter that Blaine had guilted him into coming here, he was already feeling very uncomfortable.

"Do you think he is right?" Emma asked.

"Excuse me?" Rory asked, a little unsure of what she was questioning.

"Do you think that Blaine was right for sending you here, for as you put it 'professional help'?"

Rory instinctively went to protest and disagree, but he saw the truth-searching look in Miss Pillsbury's eye and knew that there was no point in excuses or lies. "Yes," he said letting out a sigh, looking down at his fingers.

"Good. My job is to help you. Together we can work through whatever your problems might be, okay?"

Rory nodded, finally accepting that he did need to be here and that he needed to stop making excuses.

Rory spent the whole period in the little office. At first he was hesitant to talk about his secrets, but there was a certain presence about the ginger haired teacher that made Rory trust her. After that the secrets and emotions that he had locked away for years came flooding out of him like water from a broken dam. The guidance counselor listened patiently to everything Rory had to say, prompting him to continue with questions every now and then. He told her about his interactions with Blaine, minus their new romance, and how Blaine was the only other person that knew about all his problems. At the end of the period Miss Pillsbury suggested that they should have a session like this twice a week. Rory agreed, noting that he was feeling a little better having talked to her.

He had to sit through last period History before the final bell rang signaling the end of the school day. He made his way to the choir room growing nervous, for there was something that he had to do. A plan that he made after his discussion with Miss Pillsbury, one he knew would make Blaine happy. As he was about to enter the room a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him towards an emptier part of the corridor. He was momentarily in shock at the action, but when his brain caught up with his body he focused on the boy in front of him.

"How was your session?" Blaine asked. "You did go, right?"

"Yes, I went!" Rory said, feeling a little offended that Blaine didn't completely trust that he would have gone.

Blaine smiled, "Good. How did it go?"

"It went well, I think. I told her about how I have been feeling, and the dream I had. And I told her about your opinions, what advice you have given me so far."

"That is really great, what did she have to say?"

"She wants me to meet her twice a week."

"Okay, and how did it all make you feel? Are you feeling better?"

Rory thought for a moment, formulating his answer. "At first I was reluctant, but you're both right, I need help. Um…I think I feel better now that I'm not holding in so many secrets."

Blaine leaned in and gave Rory a hug. "I'm really happy for you."

"Also, I'm going to take your advice"

Blaine released Rory from the embrace. "Which advice?" he asked, a little confused.

"About opening up to our friends. I am going to talk to the glee club."

"Are you sure you're ready for that?" Blaine placed his hand on Rory's shoulder feeling concerned.

Rory nodded. "I'm not telling them everything, I couldn't do that. But a small secret that they are going to find out about eventually is a good start I think."

"Okay, well, good luck. If you need any moral support, I'll be there."

With that the pair moved across the hallway and into the now full choir room. Mr. Shuester and the students were huddled around a clothing rack sorting through clothes.

"Oh, there you two are. Find your costumes, we are going to run a full dress rehearsal." Mr. Shuester said as the couple came in.

Rory took a deep breath and gathered his confidence before approaching the teacher. "Um, I have something I want to say to the group before we start rehearsal, if that is okay."

"Ah, yeah, that's okay." Will said, curious as to what it was the young student wanted to say. "Everybody take a seat for a minute, Rory has something to say."

Rory watched his peers sit down and stare at him, curiosity filling their eyes. His heart rate grew and he could feel his hands starting to sweat. He opened his mouth and began to talk, his voice a little shaky. "Hi guys, uh…recently I have become aware that one of the reasons that I don't have many friends here is that I am not a very open person. I'm not open about my emotions or thoughts, choosing instead to deal with things myself and pushing anyone who tries to help away."

Rory looked around the room to observe his audience. Sudden flashbacks of his dream caused him to freeze in fear for a moment, unconsciously holding his breath. It was only when he eyes fell on Blaine, who was giving him the sweetest, most encouraging look ever, that he remembered to breathe again and the memory of his dream disappeared. Rory continued his speech, "But I'm trying to fix that now, I want to be a more open and honest person. And I feel the first step for me is to reveal a secret that I have been holding from everybody here. The reason I have kept it is because one of the reasons I came to America in the first place was to escape it. I have never had any support for it before either, only disapproval. But I have finally accepted that you guys are probably the most likely to accept me."

Rory had another look around the room. He was surprised to see that almost everybody was on the edge of their seat waiting in suspense for Rory to finally reveal his secret. Fearing that he would lose confidence if he put it off any longer Rory said, "I am bisexual. I am attracted to and have had relationships with both girls and boys before."

There was a general air of shock around the room while the news settled in; none of them had ever questioned the Irishman's sexuality before. Rory was pleased to see that there were no faces of disgust that greeted him, only approving smiles and words of encouragement.

"It's okay dude. We accept you no matter what you are." Finn said getting up out of his seat and moving over to give Rory a pat on the back. Rachel was not far behind him and gave him a tight hug. By the time Rachel let him go the rest of the club were on their feet ready to give him hugs and encouragement. Even Kurt was offering words of support, but Rory could see straight through his mask, to the anger behind it. He tried to ignore it, focusing on the others instead. He had hugged just about everybody in the group before it was Blaine's turn. He was drawn in by those arms that he loved so much and held tightly as Blaine whispered into this ear, "I'm so proud of you." They stayed like that for a few more moments before he was released.

"Okay, I feel better now that I've told you, but I don't think I'm ready for the rest of the school to know. I get bullied enough already as it is." Rory said, still feeling unsafe with his secret being out there.

"Don't worry about it Rory. We won't tell anybody, will we guys?" Mr. Shue said. The group all voiced their agreement. "Okay, now are we ready for rehearsal? Everybody go and get changed, be in the auditorium in ten minutes."

The teenagers gathered their belongings and costumes and headed towards their respective changing rooms.

"These costumes are awesome. I think they're the best we've had so far." Mike said, slipping on his jacket.

"I agree, they are very unique, I think that might give us a bit of an edge over the competition." Finn said as he did up his shoelaces.

Rory was only half dressed, self-conscious about changing his shirt in front of the others. The rest of the boys were fully dressed now and were standing around talking. Blaine noticed Rory looking uncomfortable about the situation, still with his normal shirt on, and took control.

"Hey, I think ten minutes is up, we should get going." He said, herding the boys out of the room. He turned around just before reaching the door.

"Thanks." Rory said appreciatively.

"You're welcome." Blaine said with a wink before he turned around and left.

Rory quickly took off his shirt and put on his new one. He was just adjusting his jacket when he heard the door open again. He turned around and was faced with Kurt standing in the doorway with a glare that could kill a kitten.

"Um, hello Kurt. Can I help you with something?" he asked nervously.

"You know why I'm here. If you think that announcing your sexuality is going to make Blaine suddenly interested in you, you're wrong. I thought I told you to…back…off." Kurt said, advancing on Rory.

"That was not my intention, I swear." Technically it was the truth; he didn't reveal his secret to get Blaine to like him. Rory was so thankful that Kurt didn't know the truth, that he and Blaine were going on a date later that night.

"As if! You have no chance with him, okay. You need to get that through that thick, Irish skull of yours." Kurt sneered, tapping on Rory's head to emphasise his point.

"I'm not scared of you." Rory said with a burst of courage, swatting away Kurt's hand.

"Well, you should be!" The older boy said dramatically and turned on the spot, storming out of the room.

Rory was left speechless. Kurt was a real piece of work. He finished adjusting his costume and finally left the room, making his way to the auditorium stage where everybody was ready to begin. The rehearsal was flawless and everybody was confident and excited for the real thing the next day.

"Everybody have a good night sleep and make sure you eat well tomorrow morning so you have lots of energy for the competition." Mr. Shue said as he dismissed the teens.

Rory hurried back to the change rooms so he could change his shirt before the other boys arrived. Luckily they had stayed in the auditorium discussing their chances at the competition tomorrow. By the time they all made it to the change rooms Rory was fully dressed in his regular clothes. He waited for a while, hoping to get a chance to talk to Blaine, but the glaring eyes of Kurt became unbearable and he said good bye to the group. They replied with generic farewells, except for Blaine who mouthed 'see you tonight' and gave him a wink.

Rory walked the few blocks back to his temporary home and entered to find a bunch of giggling teenage girls in the lounge room, the Troubletones. From what he could hear they were having a discussion about what colour nail polish matched their dresses. As Rory entered the room they stopped talking mid-sentence and looked at him like he was committing some kind of crime by being there.

"Sorry leprechaun, but you're going to have to get out. Can't have you spying on us." Santana said with her notorious bitch attitude.

Brittany gave him an apologetic look as he turned around and walked into the kitchen to find Mrs. Pierce in the middle of making some pizzas.

"Hey, how was your day?" she asked with a warm smile.

"My day was busy, but good. How was yours?" Rory said, sneaking a piece of pineapple off one of the uncooked pizzas.

"I had a good day too. I've been busy all afternoon organising to feed that lot." She gestured towards the living room.

"What do you like on your pizza? You can make this last one with whatever you want on it." She pointing to the last, empty, pizza base and the many bowls of topping on the bench.

"Okay, thanks." Rory said, getting to work on his preparing his pizza.

"How did your rehearsal go?"

"It went fantastic; everybody is really excited about the competition."

"Yeah, are you excited about it?"

Rory nodded. "I am…but they have all performed many times before, and they are all so confident about it. This is my first performance, and I am so nervous."

"Aw, I'm sure you will do great honey. I'll be cheering for you just as much as I will be for Britt."

Rory felt a little overwhelmed by just how much his host mother cared for him, it made him feel loved. He finished making his pizza and was about to leave to go upstairs when he remembered he hadn't told her about his plans for the night. "I'm going out later tonight, to the movies."

The blonde woman smiled, glad that Rory had finally made some friends and was attending social gatherings. "Okay, what time do you expect to be home?"

"I don't know, probably 10.30ish."

"Just make sure your phone is charged up and call us if you can't get a ride home."

"I will." Rory moved next to his adoptive mother and opened his arm asking for a hug. She happily obliged, pulling him into an embrace. "Thank you for everything Mary."

"You're welcome honey." she said releasing him.

Rory went upstairs to his room and spent the next half an hour debating about what to wear tonight. Finally settling on a nice pair of jeans and a blue, button down shirt he got dressed, fixed his hair and went downstairs to eat the his now cooked pizza. As he ate he could feel butterflies forming in his stomach. He hadn't been on many dates before and he was nervous that somebody might see him and Blaine and spread his secret.

At seven o'clock on the dot Blaine pulled up out the front. Rory ran out eagerly to meet him, climbing into the passenger's seat.

"You look adorable Rory." Rory blushed at the compliment as Blaine leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss. "I got you these." He pulled out a small bouquet of green roses.

Rory was touched; nobody had ever gotten him flowers before. "Thanks Blaine, they're beautiful."

As they drove they discussed their favourite types of music and Rory was feeling more relaxed by the time Blaine pulled into the cinema parking lot. The couple moved inside to the ticket counter. Rory put up a fight, but Blaine insisted on paying for Rory's ticket and popcorn. "Come on Rory, I asked you out, therefore I am paying."

Rory felt nervous again as they stood in the lobby waiting to go into their movie, there were a lot of people around. Blaine could sense Rory's unease. "Don't worry, nobody is paying any attention to us."

Rory knew Blaine was right, nobody else in the lobby had given them a second look, but he still had the most peculiar feeling that somebody was watching them. He shook it off as paranoia and followed Blaine into the now open theater. It was only a small theater and was already half full by the time that the boys got in, being one of the last in the line. Blaine took Rory's hand and led him to some seats in the emptiest section of the theater. They were the only ones in their aisle in the back corner of the cinema which made Rory feel safer as Blaine kept hold of his hand and snuggled close to him. As the lights went down and the movie began Rory grew more and more comfortable with the public intimacy, nestling in against his date. The couple stayed in their close position while they watched the movie. Rory rested his head on Blaine's shoulder, breathing in his cologne. Blaine's hand moved down to rest on Rory's thigh, giving it a small squeeze. Rory nuzzled his face into Blaine's neck, plastering it with kisses. Blaine's hand moved up and down the inside of the younger boy's thigh. Both boys were completely ignoring the movie now as Rory began to suck on his date's neck, using his teeth to make his mark. Just as Blaine begun to palm Rory's half hard package through his jeans they were brought back to reality as the lights went up. They detached themselves from each other and looked around sheepishly, hoping nobody had been watching them. They left the theater and got back into Blaine's car.

"I had a really great time tonight, Rory." Blaine said pulling up out the front of the Pierce household, unaware that a car that had been following them also pulled up 100 meters behind them. He switched off the car and turned to face Rory grabbing hold of his hand.

"Me too. But next time, I'm paying."

"Next time, eh?" Blaine said with a cheeky smile. "Are you asking me out?"

"Yes." Rory replied and leaned into Blaine seeking a kiss. Blaine responded by cupping Rory's cheek with his hand and bringing his lips onto those waiting for him. Their lips molded together and Rory placed his hand on Blaine's neck, running his fingers over the mark he had left there. The boys continued passionately for a couple of minutes, finally pulling away before things got too heated.

"Sorry about the hickey." Rory examined his handiwork.

"Don't worry about it, I think it's hot." Blaine placed a last, sweet kiss on Rory's mouth.

"Good. See you tomorrow then." Rory said getting out of the car, taking his flowers with him.

"I can't wait."

Rory shut the door and watched Blaine drive away before heading inside, just missing the car that drove off after Blaine. He went upstairs to his room feeling happier than he had felt in a long time.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:**

**Hey, so this chapter is a little shorter, but that is because I know how excited a lot of you are for this scene, so I decided to post it now. :) **

**So, without further ado, let the showdown begin….**

* * *

><p>The ride to school the next morning was tense. Santana, who had stayed the night, was in the front passenger seat next to Brit, who was driving. She had already begun a harsh string of insults towards Rory which he tried to ignore figuring it was her method of psyching out the competition. He couldn't wait to get to school where he would no longer be her only target. Escaping from the car as soon as they pulled into the parking lot, Rory hurried inside to his locker.<p>

As he stowed his bag and searched for his first period textbook a bouncing girl and her much taller boyfriend approached him.

"Good morning Rory! Are you excited?" Rachel squealed.

Rory was a little taken aback at her enthusiasm. "Yeah, I am."

"You're not nervous, are you man?" Finn asked, placing his hand on Rory's shoulder.

"No, not really. Maybe a little bit." Rory lied. Truthfully he was terrified.

"Don't worry, there is no need for you to be nervous. All eyes will be on me anyway, so if you do mess up nobody will notice." Rachel reassured him. "Now, come on Finn, we need to go find Mike and Tina before class starts."

Rachel turned and headed down the hall with a bounce in her step.

"I'm really sorry about her. She gets a little crazy in competition week. I'm sure you will be fine though." Finn said before rushing off after Rachel.

The bell rang and the other students around him started heading to class. He waited where he was, hoping to catch Blaine on the way to class. After two minutes he hadn't come through the hall and Rory went to class before he could be deemed tardy again.

Double math was not a fun thing to have on a Friday morning. It was made worse by his growing nerves and the constant taunting of the TroubleTones in the class; unfortunately the TroubleTones majorly outnumbered the New Directions here. Artie, who he was sitting next to, had no problem returning their torments, but Rory wasn't any good at it so he just tried to focus on his work. When the bell finally rang Rory was grateful to get out of there. He had a free period next and decided to spend it in the library rather than the Study Hall. He hoped he wouldn't run into any TroubleTones there.

Finally reaching the library he was glad to see it practically empty. He settled down onto his favourite couch, the same one he had talked to Blaine on six nights ago. Thinking about Blaine made him smile remembering the fun time he had had last night. Feeling a little upset that he hadn't seen Blaine yet this morning he decided to text him.

**Hey, how are you? I miss you. :) xox – R**

He hoped Blaine had his phone on silent and wouldn't get caught for texting in class. He must have because a minute later his phone buzzed with Blaine's reply.

**I'm great, you? Miss you too. Sorry I couldn't find you this morning. Eat lunch with me? xx – B**

**I'm a little nervous, but good. Of course I'll eat with you. xo – R**

**Awwww…..don't be nervous, you will be fine! I'll be there to help you. :) Meet me in the same spot as yesterday. xx – B**

Rory returned to his work excited about his lunch date. He was so engrossed in his homework that he didn't hear the figure that was approaching him. It was only when he glanced to the left that he saw the pair of designer boots that stood next to him.

"What do you want, Kurt?"

"You and I need to have a little talk." Kurt said, seizing Rory's arm and pulling him to his feet, towards the door.

Rory, being of equal strength for once, was able to pull away from him. "What is it now!" This boy was really starting to annoy him.

"Just, come with me, okay?"

"Fine." Rory quickly packed up his books then followed Kurt out into the hallway. "Where are we going for this 'little talk'?"

"Somewhere less public than the library." Kurt finally pulled into an empty classroom.

Rory set his books down on an empty desk and faced Kurt.

"Okay, what is it? Rory asked impatiently.

"Why did you lie to me?" Kurt practically screamed, his demeanor quickly changing from seemingly calm to psychotic in seconds.

"What are you talking about?" Rory was both shocked and confused.

"Oh, don't play dumb with me." Kurt snapped. "I told you to stay away from Blaine, so you go on a date with him?"

"I'm sorry, but when in that did I lie?" Kurt was not making sense to Rory.

"You didn't tell me you and him were together when we talked about it yesterday!" Kurt yelled, his cheeks growing red from the exertion.

"Wait, how do you even know we went on a date?" Rory suddenly realised what Kurt had said.

Kurt snickered.

"Tell me!" Rory was really frustrated now.

"I saw Blaine picking you up and followed you to see where you went."

Rory's mouth opened involuntarily in shock. "Are you serious? Do you have any idea how creepy that is? You're a freakin' stalker!"

"I am not!" Kurt yelled defensively.

"Yes you are!" Rory didn't know what to say. He couldn't believe what was happening. The bell sounded signaling the beginning of lunch and Rory could hear students filling the hallway outside on their way to lunch. Rory wanted to finish this talk as soon as possible so he could go and meet Blaine.

"What do you want from me Kurt?"

"You know what I want!" Kurt pointed his finger at Rory accusingly. "I want Blaine!"

"And what, do you expect me to just stop seeing him and tell him to date you instead?" Now Rory was getting red in the face from yelling too. He stepped closer to Kurt with a burst of confidence. He wasn't going to stand there and take any of Kurt's crap. He was finally going to stand up for himself.

"That would be nice, glad you agree." Kurt mocked.

"Are you kidding me?"

Kurt inched his face closer to Rory's and pointed to it. "Does this face look like its kidding?"

"You are insane. Blaine and I are together, you need to get over it."

"I don't want to get over it! It's not fair. I have been working on Blaine for a whole year, you have only been here for two months. I finally get a date with him and then I find out that he cancelled it and went on a date with you."

"How is it my fault that he chose me over you? He…doesn't…want you!"

It happened in slow motion. Well, it did for Rory at least. He saw Kurt's arm draw back and palm flatten out. He willed himself to dodge, but his body was slower than his mind. The only thing he had time to do was close his eyes. Kurt's arm flew through the air until his hand colliding with Rory's cheek, the sound echoed through the empty room. Rory's head had turned to face the wall from the force of the slap and his cheek was tingling from the impact. He stood frozen in that position for what seemed like forever. He could feel tears filling his eyes from both the pain of the slap and the way it reminded him of all the bullies who had done the same thing and worse to him. The Glee Club was supposedly his 'safe place' where nobody would hurt him. It was where he came to escape from all the abuse he received out in the world, but here he was being hit by one of New Direction's finest.

He slowly turned his face back around to look at Kurt who was standing there with a smug look on his face. Rory opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't know what it was he wanted to say and wasn't sure that anything would come out if he tried. He opted for the wimp's option, run away. He grabbed his books, pushing past Kurt, but was stopped by a hand that reached out to grip his arm. He whipped his head back around to face Kurt.

"Don't you dare tell Blaine about this, okay?"

Rory shot him a confused look. Did Kurt really expect him not to tell Blaine?

"If you do, I might just accidently let a certain little secret slip…."

Rory pulled his arm out of Kurt's grip. "You wouldn't!" he cried.

"Try me?" The look in Kurt's eye scared Rory to death. This was exactly why he didn't want to tell anybody his secrets, he knew there would be somebody that he couldn't trust. Those tears that were sitting in his eyes before were now dripping down his face and he could feel his throat becoming dry in his attempt to restrain sobs.

"Fine, I won't tell. Just, please, don't tell anybody!" he managed to stammer out before rushing from the room out into the nearly empty hallway.


	11. Chapter 11

Rory hurried down the hallway clutching his books to his chest which was rising and falling at an odd pace as he tried to restrain his tears. A confusing mixture of emotions was running through him. He was heartbroken at the idea of stopping seeing Blaine. He was hurt that Kurt, who was supposed to be his friend, would hit him. The worst emotion he felt was the fear that was quickly overtaking everything else. Fear that his secret would be made known. He reached the end of the corridor and turn into the next one, not actually knowing where his destination was. All he knew was that he couldn't go and meet Blaine now.

A voice at the other end of the corridor made Rory freeze. It was the unmistakable sneer of Rick 'the Stick'. He peered further down the corridor and saw him standing with a couple of his buddies. Rory knew that if they saw him like this, with tear tracks down his face, they wouldn't let him escape. His brain snapped into action and he looked around, searching for escape options. He pulled open the closest door and slipped inside, not noticing when his pencil case fell from his arms.

The room he just entered was darker and smaller than he expected, figuring it would have been just another empty classroom. He fumbled around on the wall next to the door until he found the light switch. Once the room had lit up he realised he was standing in a supply closet. The walls were lined with shelves filled with all of the various textbooks the school used, empty notebooks, whiteboard markers and a selection of cheesy educational videos. Rory sighed; at least nobody would think to look for him here.

Rory sat down on the floor, leaning against one of the shelves, and put his head in his hands.

_What am I going to do now? The only time I feel happy and safe is when I'm with Blaine. I'm not going to throw that away. But I don't think that Kurt will give up on Blaine. This is not what I need to deal with right now. How am I going to concentrate on performing if Kurt is dancing next to me?_

_Kurt is going to tell everybody I'm bi, and then my life here will be over. I came here to escape the torment, but if I'm getting it here to then I may as well just go home. But if I go home I have to face dad. Would it be worse to face the bullies here or him?_

_Why did you have to go and mess things up! You always do this. Everything was fine here until you got a crush in Blaine and told him everything. It's your own fault that everybody is going to know now!_

The pressure was getting too much for Rory; he needed a way to relieve it. The minutes passed and Rory had begun to eye off some pairs of scissors on a shelf across from him. He had promised Blaine he wouldn't hurt himself again, but then again Blaine had promised him that he could trust the Glee Club. He leaned forward, stretching out, and took a pair. He opened them and ran a finger softly down the edge of one of the blades, twirling the sharp point around his finger. He pushed his left jacket sleeve up and stared down at the pale skin covering his wrist. He could see the little blue veins snaking up his arm.

_You shouldn't do this._

He ran the blunt edge of one of the blades across his wrist, simulating the intended action.

_But it will help relieve the pressure._

He hands were trembling and his breathing was shaky.

_Blaine will be so disappointed with you._

He was whimpering as he tried his hardest to restrain the sobs that so desperately wanted to escape.

_But he doesn't have to know._

Tears had filled his eyes so that everything was blurry. He stared down at his wrist as he pressed the tip of the blade gently against his soft flesh.

_Just do it._

He couldn't restrain his emotions anymore and he opened his mouth to free them. They escaped in a loud mess of sobs and gasps for air.

_Don't do it, be strong._

This last thought he pictured Blaine saying. The image of Blaine gave Rory determination.

With all the willpower he had left he threw the scissors to the ground, watching them slid across the floor out of his reach. He brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them, and buried his head between them. His whole body shook as he cried, his gasps for breath growing stronger until he was practically hyperventilating.

...

Blaine had reached the familiar patch of grass shortly after the bell had rung. His class had been let out early, so he wasn't surprised that he had beaten Rory there. After waiting for three more minutes he became worried about Rory's absence. He headed back inside to find him.

The first place he looked was Rory's locker, but the boy was nowhere in sight. He did however spot Kurt just a little bit further down the corridor at his own locker.

"Hey Kurt, you haven't seen Rory have you? Has he come to his locker?"

Kurt's mouth moved into a smile as soon as he heard Blaine approaching him. "He was at his locker just before. He was muttering something about 'changed his mind', 'didn't feel right' and it 'being over'. I don't know what he was talking about. It sounded kinda like he was going to break up with somebody, which is weird because I didn't know he was even seeing anybody."

"What?" Blaine was shocked, that didn't seem right. Rory was way into him the night before, how could he be so disinterested all of a sudden? "Did you see which way he went?"

"No, sorry, I was busy sorting out my books."

"Oh, okay. If you see him tell him I'm looking for him, please?"

"Sure." Kurt nodded.

Blaine hurried through the maze of hallways that was McKinley, eventually stumbling across Rick and his hockey mates. Normally Blaine tried to avoid them as much as possible because they were bullies, and being gay made him one of their favourite targets. He plucked up some courage and confronted them.

"Hey, have any of you seen Rory recently?"

They all just stared at Blaine, surprised that he would actually approach them.

"Who the fuck is Rory?" Rick finally said.

"Rory. This kid you have been bullying almost every day since he got here. You probably know him as 'the leprechaun'."

A look of realisation came over Rick's face. "Oh, you mean Mr. Potato Head!"

Blaine scowled.

"Why are you asking us?"

"I thought you might have harassed him recently and known where he was."

"Hey now, what is with all the hate? We're not 'bullying' or 'harassing' him, we are just teaching him how the social ladder works in America."

"You're despicable." Blaine turned and fled before they could react either physically or verbally.

He continued through the hallways, about to give up, until he came across a small pencil case that was lying on the ground. He picked it up and examined it, it looked familiar. He strained his memory back to recall where he had seen it before.

It came to him like a light bulb; it was the same pencil case Rory always carried around. But why was it lying on the floor?

That was when he heard it, the muffled sobs coming through the door in front of him. He quickly turned the handle and burst through the door, surveying the room until his eyes finally rested on the shaking figure huddled on the ground.

"Rory!" He knelt down next to the sobbing boy and placed an arm on his shoulder. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Rory lifted his head up just enough so that he could look at Blaine through his tear filled eyes. "I can't tell you."

"What? Why not?" Blaine searched Rory's eyes, trying to discover the truth.

Rory just shook his head. Blaine didn't know what to say or what to do.

"Blaine, please…" Rory choked out in a whisper. "…hold me."

Blaine sat down next to Rory and pulled him into his lap so he was sitting sideways on Blaine. He then wrapped his arms tightly around him and allowed Rory to lean on his chest, nuzzling his head into Blaine's neck. After a couple of minutes of soothing from Blaine, Rory's sobs died down until he was just left with silent tears and sniffles. His body began to relax and he nestled into Blaine's chest. It was then that Blaine noticed Rory's pushed up sleeve and the pair of scissor that lay discarded not too far away. Understanding what had happened he carefully lifted Rory's wrist up to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss on the unbroken skin there. He pulled the sleeve down and linked his fingers with Rory's.

"Blaine."

"Yeah?"

"You always make me feel so safe, thanks." Rory straightened up to look at Blaine.

Blaine smiled and wiped the tears off Rory's face. Unfortunately he wiped a little bit hard over the area that Kurt had slapped Rory, which was still tender and slightly off-colour. Rory winced at the pain.

"Rory, what happened?" Blaine gently traced the outline of Kurt's handprint which he could now see on Rory's face. "Who hit you? And why?"

Rory pulled Blaine's hand away from his face. "I can't tell you."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"He said…if I tell you, he will tell everybody."

Blaine was confused. "Tell everybody what? Who are you talking about?"

"He's going to tell everybody my secret."

"Your secret? But how did he find out? The only people that you told were the New Directions."

Rory didn't say anything, burying his face back into Blaine. Blaine stroked Rory's hair thinking about whom or what Rory was talking about.

"It couldn't be…everybody promised to keep it a secret."

Blaine didn't want to believe that one of their supposed 'friends' could have done this. It didn't make sense to him, but they are the only people who knew. He pulled Rory back so he could look into his eyes.

"Was it Puck? Mike? Artie?"

Rory stared back into Blaine's eyes, trying to remain emotionless. If Blaine found out it was Kurt then he would go confront him and then Kurt would tell everybody.

"Sam? Finn?"

Blaine continued to stare into Rory's eyes, searching for any hint of a reaction. There was none to any of the names he had mentioned.

"The only person left is Kurt, but that would be crazy."

At the mention of Kurt's name Rory's eye involuntarily twitched. He immediately realised his fault and tried to cover it, but Blaine had noticed and was in a state of shock.

"What! I don't understand, why?"

Rory's eyes had filled with tears again as he realised that there was no way to keep the truth from Blaine now. "He knows about us. And he told me to break up with you."

"How did he find out?"

"He is not who you think he is Blaine. He has been stalking you, he's such a creep. He has the biggest crush on you!" Now that he had told part of the story the rest of it came out in a big gush. "He told me that it wasn't fair that I have only been here for two months and got with you when he has been trying to get you for a whole year. He wants me to break up with you so he can have you. I told him he was crazy and then he slapped me."

Blaine's mouth was open in shock. "I…he hit you?"

Rory nodded. "But please, you can't tell him I told you! Blaine, he said that if I told you about any of this he would tell the whole school about my sexuality. If that happens my life will be over, I am not ready for that to be public."

Blaine pulled Rory to his chest and held him there tightly. "Rory, listen to me. I'm really sorry about what Kurt did, I had no idea that he was like that. And don't even think about breaking up with me, I care too much about you to let you go. I have to talk to him though."

Rory shook his head. "You can't, he's going to tell."

"Rory, you have to trust me. I will talk to him and I will convince him not to tell. I can't let him get away with blackmailing and harassing you, I'm scared about how it will affect you. I'll assume that this was a result of what happened." Blaine pointed to the pair of scissors on the floor next to them. "I'm so proud that you didn't, but I'm scared you will lose will power if he keeps harassing you about us."

After a minute of silence Rory whispered, "Okay, I trust you."

Blaine smiled and planted a loving kiss on Rory's lips. The muffled sound of the bell ringing out in the hallway pulled them back to reality. Rory pulled himself up off the ground and extended his hand out to help Blaine up.

Blaine took it gratefully and stood. He wrapped his arms around the slightly taller boy. "I'll see you later."

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><p><strong>AN:**

**So this chapter was really awesome in my head, but I'm not so sure I didn it justice when I wrote it. **

**Anywho, get excited for next chapter! The Klaine confrontation will occur, as will Sectionals. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:**

**Here it is, the Klaine showdown. :) **

**And in true Glee style I have only acknowledged the existence of two songs in the ND performance, even though theoretically they sing three…**

**Also, I was so incredibly happy to hit 50+ reviews with the last chapter. It is so good to get feedback on the story and makes me keen to keep writing for you guys. Shout out to 'pupgal999' who was my 50****th**** review, special thanks to you and everybody else who is a loyal reader and reviewer.**

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><p>Blaine was furious. He had tried not to show Rory how upset he was to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. But now that they had parted ways he was stalking through the halls searching for Kurt, not caring that he was supposed to be heading to class. He finally located the boy and strode up to him.<p>

"What is your problem?" Blaine's voice was hushed to avoid unwanted attention, but his tone was angry.

Kurt's face turned to shock, he hadn't been expecting an angry Blaine to appear on his way to class. His shock didn't last long, being replaced with a look of anger as he realised that Rory must have blabbed. He adopted an old defense and pretended to play dumb.

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about."

Blaine grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the hallway into an empty room. The thought of Blaine pulling him into a room like this normally would have turned him on, but he was both furious at Rory and nervous about what Blaine was going to say.

"Please, don't even try to pretend you don't know what I mean. I found Rory not long after I talked to you. I know what happened." Kurt didn't like the disgust in Blaine's voice. He was beginning to feel guilty, he hadn't meant to hit the boy, it was just one of those things that happened in the spur of the moment and he had regretted it as soon as it happened.

"So, I guess he told you then…" Kurt tried to hold his somewhat calm composure, but on the inside he was dying. If Rory had told him everything then Blaine would know all about his plotting, scheming and stalking. And if Blaine knew about all of that, the crazy part of him that he kept hidden, his chances with him were significantly lowered; Blaine wouldn't even look twice at him now he knew how much a jerk he really was.

Blaine nodded. "Yes, he told me everything. But I had to practically beg him. He refused to tell me, saying that you had threatened him. Did you really threaten him Kurt? And why on Earth did you hit him?"

Having Blaine this angry at him made Kurt upset, this was so not how he had planned everything out in his head. Instead of making Blaine like him, he had made him hate him. There was no way that Kurt would be able to deny his actions; Blaine would believe Rory over him. "I didn't want him to tell you, because I knew you would get angry at me. Like you are right now. I didn't mean to hit him, it was accident."

"An accident…yeah right. Don't tell me your threat was 'an accident' to."

"No, I just…." Kurt sighed.

"You threatened to tell the whole school his secret?"

Kurt shrugged. "It was the first threat I could think of."

"Do you have any idea what kind of damage you would do to Rory if you followed through with your threat? You have no idea what he has had to deal with in his life. He is a really fragile person Kurt, and he has serious trust issues. The fact that he actually opened up and trusted us with one of his secrets was a huge deal for him. You turning around and using it against him has completely ruined the progress he had made."

Kurt stood in silence, unable to look Blaine in the eye because of the guilt he was now feeling.

"And I can't believe that you, of all people, would be the one to spill this kind of a secret. You're gay, you know how hard it is to come out of the closet. You know what people say about him and the bullying he will go through. You came out on your own accord, when you decided that you were ready. Would you really out Rory when you know that he doesn't want it and is not ready for it?"

Kurt was looking down at his feet trying to find a decent excuse to defend his actions. After a long minute of silence he looked up at Blaine. "You're right. I honestly don't think I could out him. I only said it because I knew it would scare him. I figured it was the best bet at getting him to do what I wanted."

"That's what I don't understand Kurt, what is it that you wanted him to do? Break up with me?"

Kurt couldn't say anything. He knew where this conversation was about to head and it was going to be awkward.

Blaine's tone became softer and he tried to look less angry. He had to be careful about how he carried out this conversation. "Kurt. I am truly sorry if I ever led you on. You have always been a great friend to me, but I have never really seen you as more than that. If I ever gave you reason to believe that I did return your feelings I apologise."

Kurt's eyes had filled with tears. After a whole year of internally debating about whether Blaine liked him or not, speculating and analysing, hoping and dreaming, to have Blaine finally standing in front of him and verbally confirming rejection was hard. But he was not going to give up. Not after all the time and effort he has spent chasing Blaine. There was no way that he was going to just walk away from him.

"Blaine, don't you feel our connection? Our chemistry? We are supposed to be together! I've known it since I first lay eyes on you. We know each other so well, you only met Rory a month ago, you don't know him at all. He isn't right for you! And what are you going to do when he leaves, huh? When he moves halfway around the world? He isn't in it for the long haul Blaine. But I am! I am not going anywhere, we could get married and adopt some kids. We could be a family Blaine!"

Blaine was shocked at how for Kurt had gone in his reply. Had he really just brought up marriage and kids? "Kurt, why can't you just be happy for me? And for Rory? He is such a sweet guy and he really deserves to have some happiness in his life for once."

"But what about my happiness? Why can't I be happy too? Why is it okay for me to be sad and lonely while you and your leprechaun skip merrily through the fields?"

As Blaine listened to Kurt's last sentence he began to understand. "Kurt. I think I know what your problem is. The reason why you are so attached to me is because I've been the only other gay guy around. I am sorry that I don't feel that way about you, but I promise you that there is a guy out there that is perfect for you. He is going to love you unconditionally and you won't feel lonely again."

"Oh, that's great Blaine. Thank you for that delightfully cheesy and not at all over used pep talk." Kurt said sarcastically. "If you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of said man I would be ever so grateful."

A look of annoyance flashed across Blaine's face. Why did Kurt have to be so difficult? "Kurt, you will meet him someday. I know you might feel lonely right now, but when you finally meet the right boy it will be worth it."

"But I don't want to wait Blaine! And I don't want another man, I want you!" Kurt was beginning to sound whiney.

"Kurt, you need to accept the fact that Rory and I are together and move on. How would you feel if I came onto you like this if you were happy with another guy?"

"I can't move on Blaine. I love you so much and if you can't see it, I will just have to convince you." Kurt plunged his hand onto Blaine's hip and drew him close, placing his other hand on Blaine's cheek.

"Kurt, don't. Sto…." Blaine was silenced by Kurt's lips desperately rubbing against his. Blaine tried to push him away but the taller boy was leaning over him, giving himself the position of power. Blaine tried to pull his mouth away, but he was held firmly in place. Somehow in his resistance his mouth had opened just enough for Kurt to slid his tongue in. Blaine could hear Kurt moan as he felt the tongue slide around his mouth. This kiss was utterly repulsive to Blaine; he continued his attempts to get away. He finally succeeded when he managed to free his hands from between their chests and pull Kurt's face off him. He stepped back so he was out of Kurt's grasp.

"What the fuck! Why did you do that?"

Kurt straightened up. "To prove to you that we belong together. Didn't you feel the fireworks Blaine?"

"NO! There were no 'fireworks' Kurt. That was honestly the worst thirty second of my life."

Kurt looked heartbroken, but Blaine didn't care anymore. He couldn't believe Kurt had just kissed him like that.

"Stay away from me and my boyfriend!"

He couldn't stand to look at Kurt any longer, turned on his feet and left the room.

The last bell finally rang and Rory made his way nervously to the choir room. He hadn't seen Blaine since lunch and didn't know whether he had talked to Kurt yet. The room had been rearranged; the piano pushed to the side and makeup mirrors had been arranged in rows. Neither Blaine nor Kurt were in the room and Rory sat down on a chair, not really sure of what he should be doing. The only other members of the New Directions that had arrived so far were Mike, Tina, Artie and Quinn. The girls had already taken a seat in front of the mirrors and begun working on their makeup and hair while Mike and Artie had begun a conversation about what songs they thought the competition would sing. Other member slowly began to arrive and either joined Mike and Artie's conversation or sat down at a mirror.

When Kurt entered the room Rory looked down and pretended to be busy with his phone. Because of this he missed the look that Kurt shot him before moving to sit down at a mirror. Rory kept his head down until he was tapped on the shoulder. He looked up to see Blaine smiling down at him.

"Come get changed with me. " Blaine said pulling Rory up by the arm.

They got their costumes and left the room. The only person that paid the couple any attention was Kurt who jealously watched their whole interaction out of the corner of his eye. Neither Blaine nor Rory said anything as they walked through the halls. It was only once they had finally reached the empty change room that Blaine took Rory's hand and lent in to kiss him. Rory responded to the kiss, but broke it shorty after.

"Blaine, please. I've been anxious all afternoon. Have you talked to Kurt yet?" Rory pleaded.

Blaine smiled at the boy. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. You are so adorable. Yes, I talked to Kurt. I need to tell you about what happened."

"What happened? Was he angry at me? Did you convince him not to tell everyone?" The rushed pace of Rory's words made it hard for Blaine to understand, particularly with his strong accent.

"It's okay, calm down." Blaine reassured Rory. "Yes, he was mad at you. But I gave him a piece of my mind and he said he wouldn't tell."

Rory thought for a moment. "I don't trust him, Blaine. How do you know he didn't say that just to get you to stop hassling him?"

Blaine pulled Rory into a hug before he could get too upset. "I know that is a possibility, but I think I believe him. He seemed to really regret ever saying it in the first place. I mean, he is still acting like a bitch, but I don't think he would stoop so low as to hurt you…again."

"He's only apologising for that because he doesn't want to look bad in front of you…"

Blaine sighed. "Maybe he is, but the important thing is that I'm here to protect you and if he ever does anything to hurt you in any way again I will beat his pretty little face in."

Rory cracked a smile. "You would do that for me?"

"Of course. I may be shorter, but I could take him."

"Okay. What else did he say?"

"He talked about what he wanted...but I'm sure he already told you all about that."

Rory scowled. "Yeah, he wants you…"

"Yeah, but I promise you that I don't want him Rory. You have to understand that. No matter what he says or does, I belong to you."

"Really?" Rory looked at Blaine with wide eyes.

"Of course honey." Blaine leaned in and gave Rory a quick kiss. "Keeping that in mind, there is one more thing I need to tell you."

The smile on the Irishman's face instantly disappeared. "What is it?"

Blaine sat Rory down on one of the benches. "Kurt got a little crazy…and to try and convince me that we should be together…he kissed me."

"WHAT!" Blaine watched as Rory's mouth sprung open and a mix of emotions flashed over his face.

"Rory, I promise I didn't kiss back, he just shoved himself onto me. I would never ever cheat on you."

"But…."

Blaine put his arm around Rory. "I know, he's a jerk. I pushed him off me and told him to stay away from us. Please don't be upset."

Rory sat thinking for a minute before looking over at Blaine. "It's okay, I understand. Just to be sure though, I'm going to have to prove to you that I'm a much better kisser than that bitch." he grinned leaning closer to Blaine

Blaine giggled, "You don't need to prove it to me, I already know."

"I sure hope so, but I'd rather be sure." Rory captured Blaine's lips with his own. The pair got closer and Blaine was surprised at how dominating Rory was being, using his tongue to play around in Blaine's mouth, running his hands through Blaine's hair. Blaine really liked this confidant Rory.

They got a bit carried away with each other, not hearing the door open and footsteps coming closer to the part of the room they were occupying. It wasn't until they heard a gasped 'ohmygod' that they suddenly parted, panting, and looked around to see a very shocked Finn.

"I'm sorry….um…I didn't know you to were…" Finn looked lost for words, "…are you two together?"

Rory blushed and tried to hide his face. He hadn't planned on telling anybody about their relationship yet. Blaine could tell Rory was feeling uncomfortable and took his hand in comfort. "Yes Finn. We are. But we're really not ready for anybody to know yet."

Finn seemed to have recovered from the initial shock and had unfrozen to walk closer to where Blaine and Rory were sitting. "Oh, okay. I won't tell anybody if that's what you want, I promise."

Rory's worry disappeared and stood to give his tall friend a hug. "Thank you Finn Hudson. You're the best."

The three then proceeded to get changed, Rory changing his shirt only when he was sure Finn wasn't looking, and went back to the choir room.

An hour later everybody was in costume, hair and makeup perfected. Blaine had kept to Rory's side all afternoon and was trying to ignore the looks that Kurt was giving both of them. After a session of vocal warm ups and a visit from the TroubleTones the New Directions made their way into the auditorium and found their seats.

Rory's heart started beating faster when he first walked into the packed hall, he had no idea there would be this many people. His palms grew sweaty and he was getting that horrible feeling of butterflies in his stomach. Blaine could sense Rory's extreme nervousness and wanted to calm him. Once they had sat down he discreetly took Rory's hand, leaned closer and whispered, "It's okay, you will be fine."

With those words of encouragement and the feel of Blaine's hand in his Rory did calm down a little. The show in itself was surprising to Rory; he had never actually seen another glee club perform. The first group sang a song he had never heard of, but it was performed perfectly and the girl singing lead was amazing. Then it was the TroubleTones turn. All of the New Directions watched anxiously, as their 'friends' performed a stylish mash-up of 'I Will Survive' and 'Survivor'. They didn't have much time to analyse the performance though because then it was their turn to head backstage and prepare to perform.

As the emcee announced them Rory's heart sped up into overtime. The music started and he heard Blaine and Rachel began to sing onstage. This was it, performance time. There was no backing out now. All of his fears and insecurities from the past week were coming back to him. He remembered hitting the wrong notes and messing up the dance and how he had punished himself for it. What would he do if he did those things on stage? If he messed up his solo or just completely forgot the dance routine. He had promised Blaine that he would stop punishing himself, but what was he supposed to do if he failed everyone?

Rory's thoughts were interrupted by a snide voice that appeared in his ear. "Your boyfriends a good kisser."

Rory turned around sharply to see Kurt strutting away from him with what he knew would be a smug grin on his face.

A new fear plagued Rory now. What if he messed up so bad that Blaine got upset with him? And what if Blaine was so disappointed that he broke up with Rory? Would he then go to Kurt?

The duet was drawing to a close and Finn ushered the group on their side of the stage into line. Just before they went on Finn, recognising the younger boy's anxiety, gave Rory a pat on the back. "You can do this Rory. We all believe in you!"

Mike and Tina, who were standing with them, gave him a smile and encouraging nod each and with that they were onstage. Rory flicked into auto pilot. His mind was racing with thoughts about how much bigger the auditorium looked and how bright the lights were, but his body and voice seemed to be moving on their own accord. Before he knew it the song was over and the crowd were on their feet clapping and cheering. It was only once they had left the stage and made it to the choir room that Rory came off auto pilot and realised everything went great. He had done it!

Everybody was hugging each other and cheering. Blaine came and wrapped his arms around him. "You did wonderful!" He stayed there for a moment before releasing him and moving on to hug Rachel. The performance adrenaline started to wear off and the group's excitement soon turned to anxiousness as they waited for the winner to be decided. Half an hour later they were standing on stage between the Unitards and the TroubleTones.

"Third place goes to….the Unitards!" The girl Rory had been eyeing before let out a squeal and ran forward to collect their trophy.

"And now, the winner of first place and moving onto the Regional competition is….the New Directions!"

The group exploded with excitement. There were hugs and squeals all around as Rachel ran to claim the trophy. Rory could see the TroubleTones standing frozen in shock and disappointment next to them. He followed the rest of the group as they ran offstage feeling really happy with himself for the first time in a while.


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, apologies for the lateness in updating. It took me a little longer to write this chapter and then the FF website wouldn't let me use my Doc Manager. But here it finally is.**

**The main plot point in this chapter is that Blaine and Rory get it on…so if you do not want to read smut then skip this chapter. :) But if your keen, and I know a lot of you are, read on…. ;)**

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><p>The New Directions ran through the halls, back to the choir room, screaming. They were soon joined by their families who shared their congratulations. Rory sat quietly by himself; he had no family here to celebrate with. Even if his family were here he doubted that they would have even come. He knew that the Pierce's were here, but figured they would be busy consoling Brittany. That is why he was surprised to see Mrs. Pierce walk through the door towards him.<p>

"Congratulations Rory!" She gathered him in a hug.

Rory smiled. "Thanks Mary. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with Britt?"

"I had to come and congratulate you on your win! But I also came to warn you, Brittany and her friends are pretty upset and she invited them over to stay the night. They will overtake the house both tonight and tomorrow morning, so unless you want to deal with a bunch of distraught teenage girls you might want to organise to stay at one of your friend's houses."

The last place Rory wanted to be right now was surrounded by grumpy girls, especially because he was part of the reason they were so upset. "Okay, I will."

"Okay, sweetie. Call me if you need anything."

She left and Blaine, who was on the other side of the room, motioned for Rory to follow him out into the corridor. Once they had found a private location the couple embraced each other.

"We did it Rors." A smile lit up Blaine face.

"Yeah, it was all because of you though. You are amazing."

"Aw, thanks honey. But we couldn't have done it without you either." Rory smiled into Blaine's lips as they briefly connected to his own.

"Well, we better go back and finish celebrating with the group. They must be wondering where we went." Blaine took Rory's hand and began to pull him back through the corridor.

"Wait." Rory pulled back against Blaine causing him to stop.

"What?" Blaine asked curiously, noting the shy look in Rory's eye.

"Um, I kinda need a place to sleep tonight…can I stay with you?"

Blaine's grin returned. "Of course you can stay with me. But what's wrong with the Pierce's?"

"The TroubleTones are supposed to be crashing there tonight. And you know what Santana's like when she's upset, she will rip me to shreds."

Blaine let out a giggle. "Well then, for your own safety I insist that you stay with me."

Rory smiled and hugged his boyfriend. "Thanks Blaine."

The New Directions party continued as they packed up their belongings and changed back into their normal clothes. Soon Rory and Blaine said goodbye to everybody who was left in the room and made their way out to the car.

"Blaine, are you sure your parents will be okay with this?" Rory asked as Blaine parked the car in his driveway.

"Don't worry, they'll understand. Besides, they will be in bed already."

Sure enough once they got inside all of the lights were turned off and the sound of Mr. Anderson's snores could be heard coming from the master bedroom. Blaine lead Rory quietly through to the other end of the house where his bedroom was located, shutting the door behind them. They dropped their stuff on the floor and Blaine flopped down onto the bed, letting out a tired sigh.

Rory stood awkwardly by the door, unsure of what he should be doing. It had finally dawned on him that he was staying the night with his boyfriend. He was all alone, with his boyfriend, in a bedroom. He looked up to see Blaine smirking at him from his position on the bed.

"Are you going to stand there all night or come here?" Blaine patted the spot on the bed next to him and winked. "I can assure you the bed is more comfortable than standing."

Rory gingerly made his way over and sat down on the edge of the bed. Blaine wasn't satisfied with Rory's position so he wrapped his arms around the younger boy's torso and dragged him downward until they were both lying on their sides facing one another. Blaine's hands were still resting on Rory's hips and he drew them closer to his as their lips met. Rory welcomed his boyfriend's prodding tongue into his mouth, letting a quiet moan escape as it moved around his mouth, toying with his own tongue. He brought his hand up to grip the back of Blaine's head and moved his chest in closer to Blaine.

A sudden noise from outside caused Rory to hastily stop kissing and sit bolt upright.

"What was that?" he said breathlessly.

Blaine sat up and put his arm around Rory. "Relax Rors, it must have been Joey, our dog."

"What if it's your parents? What if they walk in on us?" Rory was beginning to panic, and Blaine understood why.

"They are asleep, at the other end of the house. They won't come in."

Rory still looked nervous. "Are you sure? I can't go through getting caught doing this again."

"If they did, by some small chance, come in they aren't going to do anything. They'll be a little angry that I didn't tell them you were sleeping over, but all they would do is make you sleep in the guest room. Rory, my parents love and accept me, they won't hate on us for this."

Rory sighed, "Your parents are great. Why am I the only person with crap parents?"

Blaine pulled Rory closer. "Aw, I'm sorry. Just forget about them for now, okay. You're safe here."

Blaine put his fingers on Rory's jacket zipper and slowly drew it down, looking into his gorgeous baby blue eyes. Rory smiled back at him and allowed the jacket to be slipped off his arms and discarded on the floor, closely followed by his button down shirt, all he was left with was his plain white undershirt. Blaine then kicked of his own shoes and removed his cardigan before returning to the bed and pushed Rory down onto his back.

Their lips met again in a rush of passion as Blaine lay on top Rory. Rory's hand located Blaine's and their fingers entwined together. Blaine's free hand found its way to Rory's hip where the top of his pants rested. His fingers gently pulled the cotton t-shirt out so he could fit his hand up underneath it to run over Rory's warm skin. Rory gasped at the sensation of Blaine's fingers lightly exploring his torso and had a sudden urge to know what Blaine's skin felt like.

He ran his hand up Blaine's back, underneath his shirt. The skin he felt was like none he had felt before. It was a toned against his back muscles, a little rough, but still had a sense of delicateness. He wanted more, but the shirt was in the way.

Rory tugged upwards on the offending item and Blaine got the message, lifting himself up and stripping off the shirt, only leaving Rory's lips for a moment. He too wanted more and pulled the rest of the hem of Rory's shirt out from his pants and tugged it upwards. Rory leant up and held his arms above his head so that he could be completely stripped of his shirt while his feet fumbled around, freeing themselves from his shoes and socks. Once both shirts had been cast off the bed Rory forced Blaine to roll over so that he was on top. The feel of their bare chests finally touching each other was electrifying. Both boys moaned into each other's mouths as their skin rubbed together.

Soon they were moaning about something else as their chests were not the only things rubbing together. Rory could feel Blaine's growing erection pressing into him and the strain in his own pants was becoming uncomfortable. Blaine, being the more experienced of the two, decided it was time to move things along and he rolled back over so he was on top of Rory. His mouth left his partners and started to kiss and nip at Rory's neck while his hand traveled downwards to palm the hard lump in Rory's pants. His hips uncontrollably bucked into Blaine's hand and a lustful moan escaped his mouth. A sudden nervousness filled Rory again as he thought about where this was all leading.

"Blaine." Rory's voice was shaky from both excitement and nerves.

Blaine lifted his head up to look at Rory. "What?"

"I'm still a virgin."

Blaine smiled, "I know. It's okay, we don't have to go all the way. I want to just take it slow." He placed a brief kiss on Rory's lips before continuing kissing a trail up towards his ear. He gently nipped the earlobe and then whispered, "If you're uncomfortable or want to stop just say so."

Once Rory had nodded Blaine continued his trail of kisses down Rory's neck and across his collar bone to his shoulder. He ran his fingers over some of the fading bruises at the top of Rory's arm causing him to wince faintly. Blaine lay a gentle kiss on each bruise and then looked up to see that Rory was biting his lip and looking downwards, an unmistakable look of shame.

"Rory," Blaine pleaded, "they don't bother me. I think that you are beautiful."

Rory's eyes snapped onto Blaine's and his lips curled up in a timid smile. "Nobody has ever called me beautiful before."

"I mean it Rory. I love how soft your skin is and how discreetly strong your muscles are. I love the way your eyebrows move whenever you talk and don't even get me started on your eyes. They are the most amazing blue and I feel like I could stare into them all day long. You are the most beautiful guy I have ever seen. And I can't wait to get a look at 'all' of you," Blaine squeezed Rory's erection tightly, "to see if it is as beautiful as the rest of your body."

Rory's cheeks reddened in a blush and he could feel his heartbeat speed up, but his excitement overtook these. "Well then, I hope I don't disappoint you."

And with that invitation Blaine's hand found the button to Rory's jeans and popped it open, closely followed by the zipper. His hand wriggled under the elastic band of his boxers and grasped Rory's now throbbing erection. The sensation in his cock was like nothing Rory had experienced before and he couldn't help but let an uncontrollable gasp out. Blaine pumped it a few times before the restriction of the clothes annoyed him enough to stop and yank down both Rory's jeans and underwear. He paused for a moment to take in the sight of Rory's cock standing erect with small glistening drops of precum coating the head. Rory was looking down at Blaine expectantly, anxious to know what Blaine thought about his manhood.

Blaine smiled and shuffled up the bed until his was hovering over Rory. He leant down until their lips were grazing each other.

"You're so beautiful Rory. All of you."

At this Rory whimpered and needily pushed his lips up to squash into Blaine's. The kiss was desperate, teeth and tongues fighting together. Blaine ground his still clothed hips down onto Rory's naked ones, both boys moaned at the friction. Blaine couldn't stand the waiting any longer and stood up, finished stripping Rory's of his pants and lost his own, breathing a sigh of relief when his own cock was finally freed of it cotton prison. Rory moaned at the sight of Blaine's cock and felt his own twitch. His hand found its way down to grasp himself and started stroking, but was soon stopped by another.

"Let me."

Rory lay back down as Blaine knelt between his legs and took his boyfriend's length in his hands. He fisted his hand up and down Rory's shaft, grinning each time Rory's tried to muffle a moan resulting in it coming out as a whimper. Rory had his eyes closed, enjoying the waves of pleasure that were coursing through his body, so he didn't see when Blaine moved his head down and sunk his mouth unto his cock. His eyes flung open as he felt the warm mouth close around him and pull back up his length with a deep suck. A deep, lustful moan from the back of his throat escaped unmuffled followed by a 'Blaine…so good….uh…' as his hands flew down to cling to Blaine's hair.

Blaine kept sucking around Rory's cock, using his tongue to elicit more moans from the younger boy as he ran it up the length and into the slit. Blaine had to restrain Rory's hips with his hands as he started to buck into his mouth muttering swear word that Blaine had never heard before.

"Ohhhhh…so close….Blaine…"

Blaine sunk down further onto the cock until it was in the back of his throat and he skilfully swallowed around it. That was the end for Rory. His hands clenched around Blaine's curly locks and streams of his cum shot into his mouth as he continued to suck Rory through his orgasm. Rory lay on the bed, eyes closed, absorbed in the power of his orgasm. He felt Blaine's mouth leave him and whimpered at the loss of warmth.

After regaining his ability to think straight he opened his eyes to find Blaine sitting beside him furiously stroking himself, quietly moaning. Rory was transfixed by the sight of Blaine, who was usually so composed, coming undone and after what Blaine had just done for him he wanted so badly to help him with his pleasure. He sat up and shifted towards Blaine. Having not done anything like this before he was feeling a little nervous, anxious that he might do something wrong or that he would be no good at it. The sound of Blaine's panting encouraged him, fearing that Blaine would finish before he even had the chance to join in, and he replaced Blaine's hand with his own. Rory tentatively started to stroke him the same way that he would stroke himself. He figured he must be doing something right when Blaine groaned and buried his face in Rory's neck.

"So…amazing…so…good…Roorrryyyyy!" Blaine panted.

Blaine's sounds encouraged Rory to take this further and he took his hands off Blaine's cock, causing him to whine at the loss, and moved his mouth down to hover just over it. He looked back up to Blaine who was staring down at him.

"You don't have to if…"

"I want to Blaine." Rory cut Blaine off midsentence.

And with that he slowly lowered his mouth around Blaine's twitching cock. The lustful sounds coming from Blaine's mouth gave him more confidence and he began to suck lightly and bob his head. Blaine was impressed with Rory's efforts, even though his technique was inexperienced his enthusiasm made up for it.

Rory loved the sight of Blaine coming apart at his touch, watching Blaine pant and moan as he ran his tongue up his shaft. He could feel Blaine's hips twitching and jerking beneath his hands, he knew that Blaine was trying hard not to slam them into his mouth. He pulled his mouth back so he was just sucking on the head. He ran his tongue around the tip playfully grinning around it as he heard Blaine moan once again.

"Rory…I'm close." Blaine tried to pull Rory's head back to avoid squirting into his mouth, but Rory was determined to finish the job himself and sunk back down onto the cock as far as he could go. At this Blaine was sent over the edge and his release shot into Rory.

Rory choked on it a little, there being more than he had expected, but managed to swallow it all. He licked his lips to clean them and focused his attention onto Blaine who was still coming down from his high. Rory moved up the bed so he was lying level with Blaine. The first thing Blaine saw when he opened his eyes was Rory's face just centimetres from his. His blue eyes were sparkling as they looked straight into his own. Blaine smiled and gave him a gentle kiss.

"You are so amazing Rory. That was so good." Blaine whispered.

Rory yawned and snuggled in close to Blaine. "Yeah…we should do that again, soon…"

Blaine laughed quietly and wrapped his arms around Rory. "Yes, we should."

They lay there in each other's arms for a while longer before Blaine spoke up.

"Rory, we should probably clean up and put some clothes on. My parents won't be too thrilled if they come in and find us naked in the morning."

Rory groaned. He was too tired to move, but the thought of being caught naked was encouragement enough to get up. Blaine had already gotten some tissues and wiped off the stray liquids that covered the bed and gone to his draw to put on a fresh pair of pyjama bottoms and a clean t shirt.

"Uh, I don't have any other clothes."

Blaine smiled and returned to his draw to extract a clean pair of boxers and another shirt. He threw them to Rory who gratefully accepted them and clothed himself. Once Blaine was satisfied that the room looked like they didn't just have sex he turned the light off and crawled back onto the bed, crawling under the sheets. Rory was already there, half asleep. Blaine pulled Rory into his arms again and Rory cuddled up against his chest, sighing contently. Blaine loving stroked Rory's hair and within minutes they were both sound asleep.

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><p><strong>So, I have planned out some new drama for the next chapter, so stay tuned.<strong>


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:**

**So rember how I promised this chapter would have more drama...turns out I lied. It ended up becoming really fluffy, but as you will see by the cliffhanger, next chapter will definatly be more dramatic. :)**

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><p>Blaine was awake as soon as the morning light shone through the gap in his curtains, falling upon his face; he had always been a light sleeper. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the top of Rory's head. His face was buried in Blaine's neck and Blaine couldn't help but stare at him, admiring the beauty of his innocently sleeping face. He smiled and lay a gentle kiss on his forehead.<p>

Not wanting to wake Rory up he carefully reached the arm that wasn't trapped underneath his partner around behind him and fumbled around his bedside table. After knocking multiple items around and off the ledge, his finger clasped around his phone and brought it back around to his face. He unlocked it to discover that it was only a few minutes past 7am. He groaned and shut his phone, discarding it on the bed beside him. Being a Saturday he was hoping to sleep in, but unfortunately he was one of those people who could go back to sleep once they had woken up.

He lay with Rory for a further thirty minutes, taking the time to enjoy the moment, the smell of Rory and the cute way he would twitch or murmur in his sleep. Soon the need to pee and the hunger in his stomach drove Blaine to carefully slide his arm out from under Rory, who stirred and groped around for something to cuddle in the absence of Blaine's body. Blaine took the pillow from his side of the bed and placed it next to Rory who wrapped his arms around it and snuggled his face into its soft surface. Blaine let out a quiet chuckle and pulled the blanket up around Rory's shoulder, giving him a quick peck on the forehead and quietly left the room.

After relieving himself and freshening up in the bathroom he made his way to the kitchen to survey the breakfast situation. His mother was standing at the bench adding some water to a mixing bowl. His father was sitting at the table reading the newspaper.

"Good morning, sweetie." His mother smiled at him and begun to stir the batter.

"Morning." Blaine made his way to the fridge and searched for the juice. He located it and brought it to the bench.

"Did you sleep well?"

Blaine nodded while pouring himself a glass of juice and then downed the whole thing at once.

"That's good honey. I'm making pancakes for breakfast."

"How late did you get home last night?" Blaine's father spoke up.

Blaine looked to his father, "I came home after we were all done at school, so it wasn't that late. Um…I hope you guys don't mind but I had a friend sleep over. He was kicked out of his home and needed a place to stay for the night. I would have asked your permission, but you guys were asleep and I figured you wouldn't mind."

"Oh, of course that's fine sweetie. Who is it? Why did he get kicked out?" his mother said searching for the frypan.

"His name is Rory. I don't think you've met him; he's in America on exchange from Ireland. His host family's daughter is in the TroubleTones, the team we beat last night, and they were all staying at her house last night. They were all really upset and would have taken all their frustrations out on him if he was there."

"Oh, okay, he is welcome to stay here until it is safe to go back home. Where is he now?" She had now heated and buttered the pan and was pouring in the first batch of batter.

"He's still asleep. He's not a morning person." Blaine said with a smile.

Mrs. Anderson laughed, "Okay, well I'll make him some pancakes too."

"Thanks Mum."

Blaine turned to leave the room but was stopped by his father.

"Blaine?"

He turned back around. "Yes?"

His father had put down his paper and was staring at him. "You and this boy…is he…just a friend?"

Blaine had hoped this conversation wouldn't come up just yet. He knew he had to tell his parents about his new boyfriend, but doing so the morning after they had a secret sleepover was not the most ideal time. But there was no point lying, they had to find out sooner or later.

"Um…no, he's more than a friend. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but we've only been together for half a week. We haven't told anybody yet."

Blaine's mother smiled at him, grateful that her son was happy. His father's reaction was not as welcoming.

"Well, I hope that you two didn't do anything 'inappropriate' in my house last night."

Fear flickered inside Blaine, but he kept a perfect poker face on.

"Dad, I said we've only been together for a few days, all clothes stayed on, I swear."

His father's demeanour softened. "Okay. Well, go wake him up, I want to meet him."

"Yes! Please Blaine, go get him, breakfast is almost ready anyway." His mother said cheerily.

Blaine laughed and returned to his bedroom to find Rory still sound asleep, hugging his pillow. He got onto the bed and crawled up to Rory's face, pressing his lips against the sleeping boys.

Waking up to the feel of Blaine's lips on his was a good way to start his morning. Rory smiled into those lips and kissed back.

"Good morning." Blaine said as he pulled back, giving Rory's face a gentle stroke.

Rory smiled and sat up. "Morning" he said still sounding groggy from his sleep. "What time is it?"

"It's about eight."

Rory groaned and lay back down and closed his eyes, burying himself in the blanket and pillow. "Why are you up so early? Its Saturday…I wanna sleep in."

Blaine laughed, got up and yanked the blanket down off Rory leaving him uncovered.

"What did you do that for?" Rory whimpered, crawling into the foetal position in an attempt to stay warm.

"Because you have to get up. My mother made pancakes and I told them about you. They want to meet you Rory."

Suddenly Rory was very much awake and sat up looking alert.

"You told them I stayed the night?"

Blaine nodded, "Yeah, there was no point lying. And I would have to tell them about us sooner or later, so I said you were my boyfriend."

"And they were okay with it?" Rory asked nervously.

"I explained why you needed a place to stay and they understood. Although, I did tell them that our clothes stayed on…" Blaine smirked at the memory of last night.

Rory too smiled as he remembered the events of the previous night.

"Anyway, they want to meet you, so you better get up and put some pants on."

Rory rolled out of the bed and shuffled over to his pile of stuff. He extracted his jeans from his bag and put them on and turned to Blaine.

"Is this better?"

"Personally I like you better without pants, but I don't think my folks will feel the same way. But, uh…you might want to put your jacket on too. Your arms…."

Rory had completely forgotten about the almost faded bruises that covered his arms.

"My parents will ask questions…they're kinda nosey…"

Rory pulled his jacket out from his bag and fastened the zip up and looked at Blaine again for final approval. Blaine smiled at him and grabbed his hand, pulling him close. He gave him a tender kiss before pulling him out the door. As they walked down the corridor Blaine whispered a final pep talk.

"My father can be a little intimidating at first, but once you get to know him he's okay. My mother will adore you; she will probably ask you lots of questions about Ireland though. If she is too much to handle just give me a signal and I'll stop her somehow."

They entered the kitchen to find two plates of pancakes waiting for them.

"Mum, Dad, this is Rory."

Mr. Anderson stood up and walked up to Rory, hand extended. Rory took it and gave it a firm shake.

"Hello sir, nice to meet you."

"Please, call me John."

Rory nodded. "Okay, will do."

"And this is my wife, Sarah." He gestured his hand towards his Blaine's mother who stood a few feet away.

"Nice to meet you Ma'am." Rory said politely.

She came up to him and embraced him in a hug. "Oh, it's nice to meet you too honey. No wonder Blaine likes you, your accent is adorable."

Rory laughed as he could see Blaine trying to hide his blush.

"Now, sit down and eat your breakfast before it gets cold."

Blaine had been right; his mother asked a lot of questions. Between bites of his pancakes Rory politely answered all of her questions about his home and why he had come to America. He danced around the truth when describing his parents and what his home life was like, and he felt Blaine's eyes resting uneasily on him as he lied straight to the Anderson's faces. Rory felt bad about lying to them, but there was no way he would tell them the truth, what would be the point of it? Once they had finished their pancakes Blaine interjected.

"Okay, I think you've interrogated him enough for one morning."

He took Rory by the hand and led him out of the room.

"So, did you have any plans for today?"

"No, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know when the girls are leaving Brit's house, I'll have to call Mary and ask her if it's safe to come home yet?"

"You can stay here if you want. We can watch some movies, and I'll drive you home later. How does that sound?"

"That sounds grand." Rory said with a smile.

And thus the boys spent the day comfortably cuddling on the couch. They watched a number of DVDs ranging from Mulan to Inception and even The Blair Witch Project (which Rory insisted wasn't too scary, but had his face hidden in Blaine's shoulder for a good half of the movie). By late afternoon Rory reluctantly made Blaine take him home, he had told Mrs. Pierce he would be home for dinner.

Rory spent all of Sunday catching up on homework and some school assignments. It had been a crazy week and he had gotten a little behind on his schoolwork. After spending all day working Rory was keen to eat dinner, have a shower and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was Monday and he was excited to see Blaine at school.

By eight pm Rory had changed into his pyjamas and brushed his teeth, ready for bed. He turned off the light and had just crawled into his warm bed when his phone lit up the room and his ringtone cut the silence. He fumbled around for the noisy object and hit the answer button before bringing it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Rory!" the young voice on the other end whispered excitedly in a thick Irish accent.

"Seamus?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Is everything okay? What time is it; it must be the middle of the night?" Rory was in shock, nobody from Ireland had called him while he was over here. He had exchanged a few emails with his parents and brother to tell them that he was going okay, but they had never called. He feared that something was wrong.

"It's one in the morning." Seamus admitted.

"What's wrong?" Rory asked worried.

"Nothing, everything's fine."

"Then why are you calling me in the middle of the night? Does Dad know you're calling me? He will get so mad at you, international calls are expensive."

"No, he doesn't. That's why I'm calling you at one in the morning; I had to wait for him to go to bed. I know he will get angry, but I really wanted to hear your voice. I really miss you."

Rory's heart broke. He and his brother had always been close. They had always been there to support and protect each other. Truthfully, Seamus was one of the only things Rory missed about Ireland and he had been feeling guilty about leaving Seamus all alone.

"I miss you too Shay. How are you?"

"I'm fine, but I don't want to talk about me. I want to hear how you are. I know you've sent me some emails telling me things are fine, but I wanted to hear it from your mouth."

"Oh, okay. What do you want to know?"

"What is you host family like?"

"They are so lovely. I couldn't believe it when I first met them, I thought it was all an act. But they are the nicest people I've ever met."

"Really? That sounds so good. What about your school? Is it anything like ours or is it really different?"

"The classes are very similar, but the people and the atmosphere are rather different."

"Do you have lots of friends?" Seamus asked eagerly.

"Um…not a lot. I didn't have any friends for my first couple of weeks, it was really bad. Everybody avoided me like the plague and if they did acknowledge me it was only to harass me." Rory left out the part about being physically bullied, not wanting to upset his brother. "But then I made friends with this really cool guy who let me join his singing club. The people in the club are really nice and they welcomed me, so now I have a few friends."

"You joined a singing club?"

"Yeah. I only joined in the beginning because I needed some friends, but it is actually really fun. We just had a big competition where we competed against other schools, and we won."

"Oh, congratulations then."

"Thanks."

"What are the girls like?"

"Oh…well when I first got here I had the biggest crush on my host sister. She is a babe, but kinda clueless. She thought I was a leprechaun."

He could hear Seamus laughing quietly on the other end of the line. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, she said I could get her 'pot of gold' is I granted her three wishes."

"So what happened?"

"She realised the truth and then her girlfriend yelled at me."

"Oh. Are there any others?"

Rory was silent for a moment. Seamus was the one person that he tried not to keep secrets from and he felt like he owed him the truth.

"There is one other person…you remember that thing that our family never talks about…my, uh, orientation."

"…yeah, I remember." Seamus said quietly.

"You have to promise me that you won't tell Ma and Dad what I'm about to tell you."

"I promise, what is it?"

"I met a guy."

"A guy?"

"Yes, his name is Blaine, he's in the grade above me."

"Wow…" Seamus sounded lost for words.

"Yeah, I really like him Shay. And he really likes me."

"So…is he, like…your boyfriend?"

Rory was getting worried, he had talked to Seamus a little bit about his sexuality back when he first came out and he had seemed to accept him, but now he was sounding shocked.

"Um…yeah. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No, I don't Rors. It just sounds a little weird, I'll get used to it though. Dad won't be impressed if he finds out. But don't worry, I'm happy for you." Rory breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you two serious?"

"We've only been together for few days, but I slept over at his house the other night…and we…you know…"

"No way! You lost your virginity!"

"Well, if you want to get technical, I only half lost it…but yes."

"What was it like?"

Rory smiled remembering that night. "It was amazing, it felt so right."

"You are so lucky." Seamus sighed.

"Seamus I really like talking to you, but you should probably go. Dads going to be so mad when he gets the phone bill."

"It's okay, I'll be fine."

"Next time you want to talk email me and I'll call you, okay?"

"Fine."

"Bye, I love you."

"I love you too, bye."

...

Blaine was waiting for Rory at his locker the next morning. Both boys grinned at each other as Rory made his way through the crowded hallway.

"Morning." Blaine said as he extended his arms for a hug.

Rory froze awkwardly, his eyes darting around nervously looking at the other people in the corridor, as Blaine's arms wrapped around him.

"Blaine." Rory said anxiously.

Blaine pulled away.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist. You are just so cuddleable." he whispered.

"It's fine, just…not here, okay?"

"Fine." Blaine sighed.

The bell rang and the corridor began to move off the class.

"I have to go. I can't be late to class again." Rory said as he quickly searched for his textbooks in his locker.

"Okay, I'll see you later then." Blaine gave him a quick pat on the before he walked away.

During first period Rory felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He quickly pressed his hand against it in an attempt to quieten it, thanking himself for remembering to turn it on silent. After it finally stopped vibrating he pulled it out of his pocket and checked the screen.

**(1) Missed Call**

As he held it discreetly under his desk it vibrated again, only for a few seconds this time.

**(1) New Voice Message**

He had no idea who would be calling him during the middle of school, nobody ever called him. He would have to wait for the end of the period to find out.

After what seemed like forever the bell finally rang and Rory flew out of the classroom. He snuck into an empty room and dialled his messagebank.

"You have one new message." The automated voice sounded. "Received at 9.14am."

"Rory Flanagan!" His father's loud voice screamed from his phone. "I need to have a little talk with you. If you do not answer your phone next time I ring, there will be consequences".


	15. Chapter 15

Fear seized Rory as he stiffly lent against the wall and shut his eyes, his breathing heavy. A million thoughts ran through his head, all ending in the same conclusion, his father had found out. And now he was scared. Scared of what his father would say. Scared of what his father would do. Scared to answer the phone, although he knew that he would have to. Scared for Seamus. Scared to even open his eyes, as if he could stay away from reality as long as he kept them closed.

The ringing bell forced him back to reality and he opened his eyes. All he could think about was getting out of the school as soon as possible; he couldn't take a call in the middle of class, especially not one like this. He clutched his phone in his hand and run through the now empty corridors. The sounds of his feet clicking on the floor echoed loudly, sounding poetically like the ticking bomb that was his phone.

He kept walking once he was out of the school building, leaving the campus and hurrying down the footpath. He was heading in the direction of the Pierce's, but that was not his destination. He didn't know where his destination was, he just knew he couldn't go home yet. He ended up at an old, rundown playground at the end of a side street. It had been abandoned ever since the council deemed it unsafe and fenced it off ready for a demolition that never occurred. Over the years it had been gratified, flooded and rusted. Nobody would bother him here.

Rory slipped through a gap in the fence and took a seat on the remaining swing and gentle rocked back and forth. The rusted screws squeaked above him as he shut his eyes and tried to drown out all of the outside noises. He tried to think of some happy memories, but the rising fear and anxiety were too overpowering. He thought about texting Blaine to tell him what was going on, hoping to get some comfort, but he couldn't bring himself to look at his phone, let alone use it. Instead he held it numbly in his hands until the inevitable happened.

Rory almost dropped the phone out of both fear and shock as it started to vibrate and ring loudly. His sweaty fingers griped it before it could fall and brought it up to his face. He stared at the screen as if he was hoping it would magically just go away, but it didn't. The ringing got louder until he summoned up enough courage and pressed the answer button, held it to his ear and whispered a shaky 'hello'.

"Rory! Is that you?" The cold, harsh voice of his father was unmistakable.

"Y…yes." Rory stuttered.

"Good, I'm glad you decided to answer this time."

"I'm sorry Dad, I was in class, I couldn't…" Rory was cut off by his father.

"Let me tell you a story. Last night I was sound asleep, having a nice dream until I was suddenly woken by the sound of the bloody dog barking from next door. So I open my eyes and look at my alarm clock to check the time and next to it sits one of our phone handsets. Now that's fairly normal isn't Rory?"

Rory tried to speak, but it wasn't words that came out of his mouth, only a cross between a stutter and a sob.

"What confused me, Rory, was that the handset was flashing at me, saying that there was a call in progress. So I picked up the phone and pressed the answer button and held it to my ear. Do you know what I heard?"

Roy hated his father. This was his worst nightmare, his father finding out about this. Blaine was the one good thing he had in his life. The one thing that actually made him happy, and now his father was going to ruin it, just like he had ruined everything else in his life.

"You and your bloody brother having a nice old chat."

"Dad, I'm sorry." Rory finally managed to produce words through his silent tears.

"Do you know how much international calls cost? Did you think it was okay to call each other and waste my money?"

"I'm sorry. It's my fault. Please don't blame Seamus. I asked him to call me."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

The anger in his father's voice hit Rory right in his core, leaving him speechless yet again.

"I listened to your conversation. I know he called you on his own will. But I didn't ring to talk about that. I rang to talk about the more disturbing information I learnt last night."

Rory shuddered, knowing what was coming.

"Do you want to tell me about Blaine?"

Rory whimpered he heard Blaine's name, he tried to hold back his sobs.

"Dad, please don't…"

"I was disgusted to hear you so proudly announcing that you had a 'boyfriend'. I thought that you were over this little problem. We agreed to send you over to America because we thought it would help straighten you out, but instead I hear it has done the exact opposite."

Rory was now openly sobbing. His father didn't seem to care at all, continuing to talk.

"Do you remember what I said last time I caught you with a boy?"

Rory sobbed. How could he forget? That night had replayed in his mind so many times, he remember every word that was said.

'_Never again will you bring a boy into this house and do sinful acts! Not anywhere else either. If I ever see you with that boy, or any other boy, again expect pain!'_

'Expect pain…' Thankfully the distance eliminated the possibility of physical pain, for now at least. But there was no way to prevent the emotional pain that was already filling his body.

"DO YOU!"

"yes…" he sobbed.

"You have disgraced our family by having sex with a man, by being in a 'relationship' with a man." The disgust radiating from his father was making Rory feel sick. "We gave you a second chance once, but there are no second chances this time. You are not welcome in my house anymore."

His father finally fell silent. The silence only made Rory's crying clearer. Neither spoke for about a minute until Rory finally mustard up the courage to speak his mind.

"Dad, I don't care what you think anymore. I have spent too much of my life trying to please you. I lived in fear every day that I would slip up and do something more to upset you. Because of you I never knew what love was. I honestly believed that it was all a fairy tale. I don't need you to ruin my life anymore. There are so many people here that love me and accept me. They would never hurt me. Blaine loves me, and I love him. I don't care what you think. I'm glad you've kicked me out, because I don't want to come home."

Now it was his father's turn to stutter.

"Goodbye Dad."

Rory hit the end call button and threw his phone away in frustration. He buried his face in his hands and let his crying take over.

He had done it. He had finally stood up to his father. Sure, it had taken being halfway across the world to have the courage to do it, but none the less he had. He sat in awe at this for a while until the reality of the situation set in. He had been kicked out of home. He would have no more monetary support from his father, not that he got much in the first place. It was all well and good while he was living in America, the Pierce's wouldn't kick him out, but his visa would expire eventually and what would he do then? He didn't really have friends in Ireland that he could stay with nor did he have any extended family that would take him in. And what about Seamus? Rory shuddered thinking about what his father would have said and done to Seamus when he found out about their call. What would Seamus say about Rory not coming home?

He sat in the playground thinking over everything that this meant until the greying clouds above him gave way and unleashed their rain.

"How cliché." Rory mumbled as he drew his hood up around his head and got off the swing. He ran over to collect his phone which he discovered was now broken. "Perfect…"

He climbed back through the fence and hurried down the street. It took him three minutes to run back to the house, by which time he was completely soaked. He was surprised, but happy, to see that Blaine's car was sitting out the front. He finally reached the front door and shook some of the water off himself before opening it and trudging in.

"Rory?" yelled Mrs Pierce's voice from the living room. "Is that you?"

"Yes." He called back, taking off his wet jacket and hanging it on a hook.

Suddenly he was met by a pair of arms that flung themselves around him and pulled him tight.

"Thank god you're okay." Blaine said into his neck.

Mrs. Pierce and Brittany rounded the corner to appear in the hallway holding what appeared to be an icepack. It was only then that Rory noticed the rather large blood stain on the back of Blaine's shirt. Rory pulled Blaine off of him so he could look at his face. Blaine's left eye was swollen and black and there was a small cut on his check that was still leaking small amounts of blood. The front of his shirt also had blood stains and a tear in it that revealed a portion of Blaine's stomach. It too was bruised and Blaine winced harshly as Rory pulled up the rest of his shirt to inspect what other damage lay beneath.

"What happened?" he finally managed to say.

"Rory, I'm so sorry." Blaine said looking apologetically into his eyes. "I'm sorry, but they know. The whole school knows."

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><p><strong>AN:**

**This chapter was really sad to write. :( **

**Next chapter may take an extra wek or two to appear, so apologies in advance. But it will go back in time a little bit to explain how poor Blaine ended up at the Pierce's house bloody and brusied. **


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:**

**Hello! Apologises that I haven't posted in weeks. I haven't had internet access for the last 10 days because I have been on a roadtrip to see various rellies. But while I was on said trip I had plenty of spare time to sit and write, so here are four chapters for you all!**

**Also, warnings for violence and offensive language/names in the chapter.**

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><p>When Rory didn't show up in their usual place for lunch, like they had agreed, Blaine was worried. His mind raced back to the events of last lunch time when he had found Rory in the supply closet. Blaine tried ringing his phone, but only got his message bank. He searched the school grounds once again, but found no sign of the Irish boy. After questioning Finn, and their other friends, he discovered that nobody had seen him since first period.<p>

He tried to stay calm, telling himself that there was probably nothing to be so concerned about. There was a good reason why Rory wasn't at the school. And maybe his phone had broken, gone flat or he had lost it. But in the back of his mind he was imagining numerous horrific explanations as to why Rory had gone MIA. He fidgeted through his afternoon classes, paying little attention to the classwork, anxiously awaiting the bell to ring so he could go look for Rory.

When he was finally released from class he made his way out to the back parking lot where his car was parked. As he approached it he saw two large seniors in red letterman jackets leaning against his hood as if they were waiting for him. Fear sparked in Blaine and he almost turned around to go inside and wait in hopes that they would go away, but his need to find Rory was stronger than his fear of the jocks. The courageous part of him forced himself to continue forwards.

"Can I help you?" Blaine asked as he finally reached his car, trying not to let his anxiety show.

"We saw you hugging your boyfriend this morning?" the larger jock said as he leant off the car, stepping uncomfortably close towards Blaine.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Blaine stammered.

"Oh, you're going to try and deny it. This will be fun then." The jock smiled sickeningly. "Your little leprechaun friend. I didn't know he was a fairy too, but I probably should have guessed it given the way he dresses. The whole school is buzzing with rumours about you two. People say they saw you at the movies together, others say they saw you sharing lunch and walking in the corridors together. You can deny it all you want, but everybody knows that you're not just duet partners."

'We're screwed' was all Blaine could think; they wouldn't be able to hide their relationship, or Rory's sexuality, now. The mature side of Blaine begged him to just get in the car and leave, but the fighter in him forced him to stay and ask, "What's it to you if he is?"

As soon as he said it he regretted it. The look on the jocks face turned to disgust and he tightly wrapped his stubby fingers around Blaine's arm.

"What's it to me?" he roared, "I don't want to have to see you two fairies walking around my school!"

"Look, I don't want any trouble. Can you please let me go?" Blaine asked calmly, trying to detach the jock from his arm.

"If you don't want any trouble, then you and your little boyfriend need to disappear. I don't want to look at you." He ended his sentence by shoving Blaine away with such force that he almost toppled to the ground. "Do you understand me fag?"

Blaine's only response was to spit in the boy's face. Sure, he knew it was a childish action, but he was so furious at the bully. And while most people would simply flee in this situation, he refused to become a helpless victim.

"You little shit!" The bully swung his fist into Blaine's face, hitting him square in the eye.

Blaine had anticipated the hit and had time to brace himself for it, but even still was pushed a few feet backwards. The jock swung another hit, but Blaine swiftly dodged it before punching his own fist into the bully. He had had experience in fighting before, and knew how to defend himself against an attacker. But once the fists started flying the other jock rushed to join his friend, and two attackers was just too much for the much shorter Blaine to handle. Before he knew it he was on the ground and had two pairs of feet and fists digging into him.

After what felt like forever, but in reality was only twenty seconds, one attacker was pulled away by a screaming female.

Santana had jumped on the back of the larger one and started hitting him over the head, causing him to stumble backwards, away from Blaine. He tried to swat her away with his arms, but she was too agile for him. She kicked him in the balls with the heel of her foot and slid off his back as he sunk to the ground, clutching his crutch in pain. She turned her attention to the second bully who had just realised what was happening and stopped hitting Blaine.

"You want a piece of me!" Santana screamed as she jumped towards the boy.

She smiled with delight as the boy flinched and fear flickered through his eye. He mumbled something about 'not wanting to hit a girl' and then dragged his buddy up off of the ground and hurried away.

"Yeah, that's right! You walk away!" Santana yelled out after them. "Don't come back!"

"Blaine, are you okay?" Brittany asked sweetly as she helped him up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I need to find Rory." Blaine dusted himself off, wincing painfully at every muscle movement. His body told him to stop moving, but his mind was racing with thoughts of Rory and what if they had already confronted him about this? Maybe that was why he had been missing all day?

"Rory? Of course, because that's logical…let's go on a magical leprechaun hunt after you've just had the shit beaten out of you. We need to go and get their asses expelled." Santana said, pointing in the direction the bully had just disappeared to.

"Santana, the reason that they did that is because Rory's my boyfriend. And nobody has seen him since this morning and he won't answer his phone. So I don't care about getting anybody expelled right now, I just need to find him and makes sure he is okay." Blaine said as he painfully reached for his car door handle.

"Wait, hold up…did you just say the leprechaun is your boyfriend? I didn't know he was gay too, why did nobody tell me this? Did you know about this Brit?" Santana said as she followed Blaine around the car to stand outside his door as he got in.

"Yes Santana. But he's not gay, he's bi. And he didn't tell anybody except the New Directions because he was afraid of being bullied. But look where we are now! Somehow people found out about us and clearly they don't approve. Now, I'm going to Brit's house to try and find him, so I guess I'll see you two there?"

"Yeah, okay. See you soon." Santana nodded and then took Brittany by the hand, leading her away to her car.

Blaine drove a little faster than he should have through the streets of Lima. And every movement he made caused his body to scream out in pain, but he ignored it just like he ignored the blood that was dripping down his cheek and staining his shirt and the throbbing in his face. As he turned into the Pierce's street the heavens opened and large drops of rain fell onto the windscreen. He parked out the front of their house and ran to the doorstep where he rang the bell. While he waited he kept telling himself that everything was going to be okay and that Rory was sitting upstairs in his room right now perfectly happy. The door eventually opened to reveal a middle aged woman with long blonde hair.

A look of shock adorned Mrs Pierce's face as she laid eyes on Blaine. He was covered in blood and had an already swollen and black eye. She recognised him as a member of the New Directions, though didn't know his name or connection to Rory.

"Hi Mrs Pierce, I'm Blaine. Is Rory home?" Blaine asked anxiously.

"No. But he should be home soon. He normally comes home with Brittany."

Blaine's hope was shattered. If Rory wasn't here, then something was defiantly wrong.

"He's not with Brit. He won't answer his phone either."

"Oh, he often forgets to charge his phone, maybe it went flat. Do you want to come inside out of the rain and tell me what happened to your face?"

What Blaine wanted to do was find Rory, not talk about his face. But he had no idea where to start looking for him if he wasn't here. So he followed Mrs Pierce inside and into the lounge room. She went into the kitchen and returned with a first aid kit, a damp washcloth and an icepack. As she started to clean up Blaine's face Brittany and Santana burst into the room.

"Is he here?" Brittany asked.

Blaine shook his head.

"Okay, can somebody please tell me what's going on?" Mrs Pierce said as she took in the sight of the two anxious girls.

"Well, Blaine here has just been beaten up because some idiots found out that he and Rory are boyfriends. And nobody has seen or heard from Rory since this morning." Santana told her.

"Boyfriends? He didn't tell me that." Mrs Pierce's mouth opened in shock. "And nobody has seen him since this morning?"

The three teenagers nodded together. Anxious silence filled the room as they all looked at each other with worried eyes. The silence was broken by the sound of the front door opening and then slamming shut. Everybody's eyes flew to the hallway that connected to the front door.

"Rory, is that you?" Blaine called out hopefully, standing up and moving towards the hall.

He entered the hall and found a very wet Rory hanging up his jacket. He ran to him and flung his arms around his taller frame, pulling him into a tight hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He said, burying his face into Rory's neck.

Blaine didn't know where Rory had been, or why he was soaking wet, but all that mattered to him was that he appeared to be unscathed.

Soon Rory was pushing him away and silently staring at the injuries on his face. His eyes then travelled down to his torso where he had some large blood stains and a tear in his shirt. Rory gently pulled up Blaine's shirt to inspect the damage causing Blaine to wince as he brushed past a tender spot.

"What happened?" Rory finally said, his voice weak.

Blaine almost couldn't bring himself to tell Rory the truth. This is exactly what the boy had feared all along. Blaine had told him that it would all be okay, but now look what had happened. "Rory, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, but they know. The whole school knows."


	17. Chapter 17

Blaine watched as Rory's face fell and a sheer look of terror ran through his eye.

"How?" Rory demanded.

"Apparently somebody saw us at the movies and at school together and then this jock saw us hugging this morning. He's the one to blame for all of this." Blaine motioned to his face and torso. "Where have you been all day? You didn't show for lunch and then after this happened I was so worried that they had already gotten to you."

Rory had momentarily forgotten all about his troubles when he saw Blaine like he was, but now it all came back to him. "Ah, it's a long story. I broke my phone." He glanced up at the other occupants of the hallway. "I'll tell you about it later."

Blaine took Rory by the hand and led him back into the living room and dragged him onto the couch.

"How exactly did this happen?" Rory asked quietly, staring at the swollen lump that was Blaine's eye.

Blaine sighed before answering, "After school I rushed out to my car because I wanted to look for you, but there were two seniors waiting for me there. One of them told me he knew about us and he said he…he wanted us to disappear." Blaine examined Rory's face to see how he was taking this, it was almost expressionless. "Then we had an argument and one thing led to another and we started fighting, but I couldn't handle both of them at once. I would have been in a much worse state if these two hadn't intervened." Blaine gestured to Brittany and Santana who were sitting together on another couch.

"Yeah, I went all Lima Heights." Santana proudly stated.

"Rory, how come you didn't tell me you were bi-corn too?" Brittany added.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to tell anybody! I knew this would happen, Blaine didn't I tell you this would happen?" Rory said, his anger rising.

"I know, and I'm so sorry Rory. This is all my fault, I shouldn't have pushed you into telling anybody else. And I should have been more careful when we we're in public." Blaine took Rory's hand and stared into his eyes.

"I'm not angry at you Blaine; it's not your fault."

"I know that McKinley has had troubles with gay bullying in the past, but I thought that they had sorted it out. You two haven't been having any trouble like this that you haven't told me about have you?" Mrs Pierce said, addressing the girls.

"Not like this, no." Brittany said.

"Okay, well I will be going in to see your Principal first thing tomorrow morning, I suspect your parents will want to do the same too Blaine." Mrs Pierce now addressed Blaine and Rory.

"I haven't talked to them yet. I suppose I should go home and do that."

"Okay, give your parents my phone number if they want to call me and talk about this. Tell them I'll be at the school in the morning."

"Will do. Is it okay if Rory comes with me and stays the night?" Blaine asked looking at Rory.

"Yes, if he wants to." Mrs Pierce replied also looking to Rory.

Rory nodded to both of them before standing up and running upstairs to change out of his wet clothes and pack an overnight bag. When Rory came back downstairs Mrs Pierce had finished dressing the cut on Blaine's face and he was standing at the door waiting.

"Rory, I'll meet with you, Blaine and his parents at the principal's office tomorrow morning. Do you understand?" Mrs Pierce instructed. Rory nodded. "Be careful, okay?"

The couple ran through the rain to Blaine's car, climbing in before they got too wet.

"Blaine, are you sure you're okay. You look like you're in a lot of pain. Can you drive all the way to your house?" Rory asked as he observed the way Blaine winced at every movement.

"It's okay. I've had worse. I know I can make it home, then I can rest."

Rory put his hand affectionately on Blaine's leg as he drove, wanting to comfort him somehow. They spoke little while they drove and soon pulled into Blaine's driveway.

"My parents won't be home yet. My mother should be soon though." Blaine said as he unlocked the front door.

Once they made it into the living room Rory ordered Blaine to sit down and he carefully stripped him of his ripped and blood stained shirt. Mrs Pierce hadn't had a chance to clean any of these wounds up yet so Blaine's torso was covered in dirt and blood. Rory got a damp cloth and some antiseptic wipes from the first aid kit which he found in the kitchen and returned to carefully clean up Blaine's stomach. Blaine grimaced as the antiseptic was used on a large graze, letting a small cry of pain escape.

Rory took hold of Blaine's hand and soothed, "I'm sorry, but I needed to clean it. You don't want it to get infected."

Once he had removed all the blood and dirt he was able to get a proper look at the extent of the injuries. Amongst the grazes lay a collection of large bruises. They ranged in colours from purple to green and even yellow. Rory had seen a lot of bruises in his lifetime, and these were amongst some of the worst.

"So, how bad do they hurt?" Rory asked. He knew just how much they would be hurting due to his previous experiences, but wanted to hear it from Blaine.

"I think I'll survive…but maybe if you kissed them better they wouldn't hurt so much." Blaine said with a cheeky grin.

Rory couldn't help but laugh. "Well, if it will make you feel better, than I'd better do it."

He leant down and ever so gently kissed the largest bruises on Blaine's stomach before making his way up to his shoulder where he kissed the bruise that had formed there. He placed a kiss on the bandage Mrs Pierce placed over the cut on Blaine's cheek before planting a chaste kiss on Blaine's waiting lips.

"Is that better?" Rory asked once he had finished.

"I think I need a little more." Blaine joked as he went in for another kiss.

Rory happily obliged, recapturing Blaine's lips and moving closer to him. The moment didn't last long as they were interrupted by the sound of the front door slamming shut. They swiftly pulled apart as Blaine's mother entered the room.

She gasped suddenly as her eyes landed on Blaine. "Blaine, what happened?" She rushed over to sit on the other side of Blaine, cupping his face to inspect his black eye.

The couple then proceeded to tell her the whole story. She was both shocked and horrified as she listened to Blaine's recounting of the attack, emotions that were soon replaced with anger.

"I'm going to see the principal about this tomorrow. I want whoever did this to you expelled!" Mrs Anderson exclaimed.

They then explained to her that they had planned to meet Mrs Pierce there in the morning and gave her the Pierce's phone number. And of course once they had finally finished telling her everything Blaine's father arrived home and they had to go through the whole story again. He was even more furious and almost left on a man hunt right then and there, but they convinced him that the best thing to do was to wait and come to the meeting in the morning.

After a tense dinner Rory and Blaine took turns showering and soon settled onto Blaine's bed to talk.

"So, are you ready to tell me about your day yet? I'm still really worried." Blaine said, looking at Rory hopefully.

Rory had been avoiding this topic all afternoon for a couple of reasons. One being that he was trying to forget about it, as if it hadn't actually happened and would magically disappear. The other being that he wasn't sure how Blaine would react.

Blaine could see that Rory was struggling to come up with the courage to tell the truth so he decided to help him out.

"How about you start by telling what time you left school?"

Rory thought this through for a moment before replying, "Just after first period."

"Okay. What happened to make you leave the school?"

"My father…he called me."

Remembering everything his father had said to him, and the disgust in his voice, brought tears to Rory's eyes and he fought hard to hold them back.

"What! Your father rang, why didn't you tell me? What did he have to say?"

Blaine noticed the tears in Rory's eyes and knew that it must not have gone well. He moved closer to Rory and took hold of his hand.

"I didn't want to tell you in front of everybody else. But…he found out about us…"

"How?"

"Seamus called me last night and I told him about you, but dad overheard. And then he called me during first period, and left a message saying that I had to answer my phone next time he rung. So I left the school and went to the old playground near Brit's house. When he rang again I answered and he started going off at me about what I had told Seamus." Rory was now sobbing as he let all of his pent up emotions from the past four hours out. "He said that I disgusted him. And then…then he said I wasn't welcome home anymore." Rory finished by burying his face in his hands and letting the sobs overtake his body.

Blaine too was crying silent tears, his normally strong composure breaking as he saw his boyfriend so upset. He felt so bad for the poor boy as he realised how rough a day it had been for Rory, being practically disowned by his father and outed to the entire school in the same day. He felt a renewed sense of anger towards the world, and particularly Rory's father, for being so cruel. Blaine tried to shush the still sobbing boy, but his heartbreaking cries continued. All Blaine could do was hold him tight and wait for his tears to calm themselves.

Rory finally stopped crying and sat up properly so he could look at Blaine again.

"I'm sorry." he sniffled.

"It's okay, you don't have to be sorry." Blaine said as he handed the red and puffy eyed Rory some tissues.

Rory blew and wiped his nose and then cleaned up what felt like puddles from underneath his eyes.

"So he kicked you out?" Blaine asked cautiously.

Rory nodded his head solemnly.

"Maybe it's for the better. You won't have to worry about him hurting you again. You can stay here in America with me until you turn eighteen and then you can do whatever you want."

"What happens when my visa runs out?"

"I don't know, we'll just keep extending it. We'll figure something out."

"What about Seamus though? I feel really bad for getting him into trouble. If I've been kicked out, I can't just leave him there."

"I don't know Rors. What I do know is that we _will_ have to talk to somebody about this. This is not a secret that we will be able to keep hidden."

"I know." Rory sighed, "Do we have to do it now though? I don't want to have to deal with school tomorrow as well as this."

"I understand. Let's get through tomorrow and then decided what we are going to do about this."

Blaine stood up, turned off the light and then crawled into the bed. He patted the empty space next to him, inviting Rory to get in to.

"Um…are your parents okay with us sharing a bed again? They seemed a little uneasy about it last time."

Blaine laughed, "It's okay, I think they understand that we've both had a tough day and trust that we won't get up to any 'funny business'. I don't think I would be able to even if I wanted, my stomach hurts too much. We can still cuddle though."

"Oh, okay." Rory then happily climbed into the bed. "But you have to let me be the cuddler this time; I don't want you to be in too much pain."

"Fine…" Blaine mumbled, though he was secretly glad.

Rory pulled Blaine towards him so that his back was pressed flush against this chest and wrapped his arm around his body. He gently kissed Blaine's neck as they whispered good night to one another.


	18. Chapter 18

Both boys ate breakfast and dressed for school with a sense of nervousness in the morning. Blaine knew that this would be a lot harder for Rory than it would be for him; everybody already knew about his sexuality. Fear had plagued him since the moment he discovered that everybody knew about them, for Rory's sake. He feared that Rory would cop so much flack for it that he would return to some of his old habits. Truthfully it was one of the reasons that he wanted Rory to stay with him for the night, to keep an eye on him. The additional discovery of Rory's phone call and being kicked out of home had caused Blaine even more concern. He knew that now, more than ever, he needed to be there for him.

"Rory, I need you to promise me that if things get too much or if it is all too overwhelming you will tell me, okay? Please don't try and keep it secret, because we know that that never ends up well. Tell me and we can talk about it." Blaine said seriously as he drove them to school.

Rory looked into Blaine's wounded face. The swelling in his eye had gone down, but a purple bruise remained there. The cut to his cheek had stopped bleeding and they had removed the bandage to reveal a long red scar that ran the entire length of his right cheek.

Rory had been thinking about this day for a long time. Not this day particularly, but the day that he would have to face the school after being found out. He had imagined how people would react and what people would say and after seeing what had happened to Blaine yesterday he was genuinely scared. He wouldn't have come if it wasn't for Blaine literally dragging him out of bed and forcing him to get ready.

"I promise." Rory replied.

"We will be okay." Blaine said this just as much for his own benefit as for Rory's.

They pulled into the school parking lot and waited for a minute until the Blaine's parents arrived, pulling up next to them in their own car. They all got out and walked inside the building, Blaine leading the way towards the main office. As they walked Rory could see the other students giving them a variety of looks, ranging from disgust to just plain curiosity, and heard the whispers that accompanied them.

As promised Mr and Mrs Pierce were standing outside the office waiting for them with Brittany. After they introduced themselves to the Andersons, Mrs Pierce spoke.

"I've already talked to the receptionist and told her the situation. Principal Figgins will meet with us as soon as he gets here."

"Your face is looking better than yesterday." Brittany said as she observed Blaine's face.

"Yeah, I still look just a handsome though, right?" Blaine joked.

Brittany and Rory both laughed. The bell rang and the students started milling towards class. "I'd better go. I hope you feel better Blaine. Good luck boys."

Rory and Blaine waved goodbye to Brittany and turned to follow the adults into the waiting room of the main office.

As they sat on the couches Rory wished that the office had actual walls, not these giant glass windows. He felt like an animal in a cage as every passing student looked at them sitting there with knowing and often judgemental eyes.

Finally the hallway traffic died down and Principal Figgins hurried into the office muttering apologies for his tardiness. He invited them all into his office and they took a seat.

"I understand that Blaine here has been a victim of a physical assault on school grounds. Is that correct?" Figgins begun the conversation.

Blaine had to stop himself from laughing. He thought it was pretty obvious that he had been physically assaulted just by the look of his face. His father answered the question for him.

"Yes, Sir. Blaine was attacked by two of the senior students in the parking lot yesterday after school."

"Do you know the names of these students?" Figgins asked, now addressing Blaine.

"No, I don't know their names, but I could recognise them."

"Okay, what was the motivation for the attack? What we're you doing before it happened?"

Blaine almost laughed again. "As you have probably heard, I am gay. I'm no stranger to being bullied about it and this case is no exception. What you probably haven't heard is that Rory and I are together." Blaine paused as he noticed the man glance at him and then Rory with a look of shock. "The jocks were waiting for me at my car after school yesterday. The larger one told me that he knew about us and didn't want us in 'his' school. Then he called me a fag and shoved me. I spat at him in response, but then they both jumped on me and beat me to the ground."

"Show him your injuries honey." Mrs Anderson interrupted.

"Well, I guess you've already seen my eye and this." Blaine pointed to his cheek before standing up and carefully lifting his shirt up to reveal his stomach. "These were from both kicking and punching me."

"I hope you understand that I want the boys responsible for this expelled." Mr Anderson said as Blaine sat down.

"I understand Mr Anderson. We do not tolerate violence at this school and those responsible will be held accountable for their actions."

Blaine scoffed. "For a school that 'doesn't tolerate violence' you sure do allow a lot of it to slip through the cracks."

Everybody in the room turned to look at him with wide eyes. Five confused adults and one suddenly very anxious teen.

"What are you saying?" Principal Figgins asked.

"I'm saying that people get physically bullied every day at this school but none of the teachers seem to notice. If anybody ever reports it they just say there is nothing they can do about it. It is only when the incidents are too big to cover up, like mine, that they are actually acted upon. For a school that is 'against bullying' you sure don't do anything to stop it." The five adults in the room were taken aback by Blaine's sudden outburst, but he continued none the less. "Did you know that for Rory's first month here he was slammed into lockers and walls every day? He had bruises up and down his arms. He would walk down the corridor every day fearing that he would be tormented at any moment. Everybody saw, even the teachers, but nobody did anything about it! He just suffered in silence." Rory had his head hung low but he could feel all eyes had switched focus from Blaine to him. "Of course, it has died down at little in the last week or so, but it's just going to get worse now that they have something new to bully him about!" Blaine's face had grown red from the force of yelling. "So don't even try to tell me that this school 'doesn't tolerate violence'."

"Rory, honey, why didn't you tell me about this earlier? We could have come and sorted it out already." Mrs Pierce looked to Rory for his reply.

Rory had been fighting the urge to cry ever since Blaine had brought up the topic of his bullying. But he refused to cry in front of five out of the six people in the room. Blaine's hand came to rest on top of Rory's giving it a small squeeze as if he knew exactly what Rory was struggling with at that moment. Blaine's hand on his gave Rory some much needed comfort and he took a few deep breaths before lifting his head to speak.

"I didn't tell you, because there wouldn't have been anything you could do about it. Blaine's right, this school does nothing to stop bullying."

"Rory, I am very sorry if you have experienced pain or suffering due to bullying here at McKinley, but I can assure you that we take this issue very seriously."

"I don't think you understand! You can't just apologise and then pretend that it will all be better! You have no idea how badly he was affected by this!"

"Blaine." Rory interrupted, trying desperately to get him to calm down. But Blaine kept on.

"And I am so scared for him! I am scared of what would have happened if I hadn't convinced him to confide in me. And I'm terrified of what will happen now if more of this," Blaine pointed to his wounded face, "happens and I'm not there for him."

Rory still adamantly refused to cry even though Blaine, who never cried, openly had tears running down his face next to him. Instead he just gripped onto Blaine's comforting hand even tighter.

"I'll be fine Blaine, I promise." He managed to choke out.

The room was filled with a tense silence for a minute until Mrs Anderson reached out to pat her son comfortingly.

"Blaine, honey, I think you're letting your anger out at the wrong person. Principal Figgins is on your side, he is the one with the power to help you."

Blaine carefully wiped his tears away and sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry, I'm just sick of people thinking that they're better than us and that it is okay to do these things."

"I understand. A full investigation into yesterdays attack will be conducted. Also, in response to this incident the schools antibullying scheme will be re-examined to fix these _flaws_ you have described. I will talk with the staff about this issue and direct them to keep a watchful eye out for any forms of bullying and to stop it in its tracks."

The parents looked to Blaine, as if they were waiting to see if he approved of this or had anything more to say.

"Of course, I can't guarantee that the bullying will stop. Teenagers are unpredictable and will do what they want even if they have been told not to. What I can guarantee is that there will be consequences for any offender."

"Thank you very much, Sir." Mr Anderson said. "I understand how tough it is to try and control this issue. I trust that you will take control of this incident and punish those responsible."

Figgins nodded. "Yes, I'll have Blaine identify his attackers in just a moment."

"Okay. I have to dash off, but thank you very much for your time." Mr Anderson extended his hand to shake Principal Figgins'.

"Yes, thank you." Mrs Anderson also shook the principal's hand and left with her husband.

"Are you going to be okay Rory?" Mrs Pierce asked.

Rory nodded at her with a warm smile.

"Okay Sweetie, I'll see you when you get home then." She and her husband shook hands with Figgins and left, leaving Blaine and Rory alone with him.

"So Blaine, are you sure they were seniors?"

"Yes, and they were wearing letterman jackets, so they must be on the football team or something. I don't pay that much attention to the jocks, so I don't actually know their names. But I've seen them around campus a lot."

"Okay, well I'll just get you to look through the photo file of the senior class and you will be able to identify them."

Figgins went to his desk and pulled up the desired file. He then turned the monitor around to display to Blaine and Rory. The screen was filled with a dozen smiling portraits, some of them they knew like Rachel and Mike and others they only recognised as familiar. As Principal Figgins scrolled down through the class Blaine found the first attacker.

"There. That one, with the black hair."

Figgins turned the monitor back around and took down the students name. He moved the monitor again and continued scrolling. It wasn't until they passed Brittany and Puck and were almost at the end that Blaine recognised the main attacker.

"Stop! The really large one with the dirty blonde hair."

Figgins took his name too.

"Okay, these boys will be taken out of class immediately and brought in for questioning. They will be suspended until the investigation is complete at which stage they will most likely be expelled. If we need your assistance we will come and find you."

"Thank you very much." Blaine said standing up and shouldering his bag. Rory did the same and followed Blaine out the door through the waiting room and into the corridor.


	19. Chapter 19

It was still first period and everybody was in class, so the hallway was empty, but Rory still glanced around nervously.

"It's okay Ror. We'll just lie low? We'll eat lunch with the rest of the Glee Club so we can't be singled out as easily. Stick with them in your classes too. If anybody tries to give you grief, just ignore them. Sure half the school will be judging us, but I reckon only one per cent has the balls to actually say anything to our faces. And since I copped two of them yesterday, there can't be many left." Blaine joked in an attempt to get Rory to relax a little.

Of course the bell rang at that moment and suddenly the hallway was filled with students. A lot of them stared at the couple, but nobody said anything directed to them, although they could see many start whispering to one another as they walked past.

Rory tried to concentrate on which class he had next and how to get there, but his mind stopped working all together as he spotted Kurt hastily approaching them. Although Kurt had promised Blaine that he wouldn't tell their secret, neither were convinced that their undoing wasn't his fault. Both took on a defensive stance as Kurt reached them.

"Hey guys, I heard what happened." Kurt peered at Blaine's face. "I'm really sorry Blaine. And I want you to know that I didn't have anything to do with it. I know I've been a bitch to you both lately and I suppose I should apologise for that. But, I didn't tell anybody, I swear." Kurt held up his right hand as if taking an oath. He looked at Rory, knowing that it was mostly his approval he needed.

Rory saw the sincerity in Kurt's eye and tried not to let his general hatred for Kurt conflict his judgment. "I believe you Kurt."

"Great! Thank goodness. I was so worried that you would blame all this on me. Anyway, this whole incident has really made me think and I am really sorry for what I put you two through. I'm sorry I threatened you Rory, and I'm really sorry that I hit you. Blaine, I'm sorry that I kissed you like I did and put you in such an awkward position. I'm sorry that I ever tried to break you two up, I should have been happy for you. Please forgive me?"

"Thank you for apologising Kurt, I forgive you." Blaine said, impressed with Kurt's sudden turnaround.

"Thank you!" Kurt squealed and looked to Rory.

As much as Rory had hated the guy and everything he'd done, he had always believed in giving people second chances.

"I forgive you too. Everybody deserves a second chance."

"Thanks Rory." Kurt gave him a brief hug.

"Just, stay away from my man in the future, or I might just have to set my new friend Santana onto you." Rory said with a grin.

Blaine chuckled and Kurt had a hesitant smile on his face as if he wasn't sure whether Rory was being serious or not.

"I'm just joking with ya." Rory laughed.

"Oh, good. Well, I have to go to class. I'll see you in Glee." And with that Kurt left, hurrying up the stairs.

"Well, I suppose we should go to class too." Blaine said, preparing to say goodbye.

"Yeah, I think I have math now." Rory said trying to remember his timetable.

"There you are! I was just looking for you." A girly voice said coming from behind them.

They turned to see Miss Pillsbury walking down the stairs towards them.

"You were?" Rory asked.

"Yes. I wanted to have a chat with you."

"Oh, of course. I had completely forgotten about the meeting we scheduled today. I thought that wasn't until after lunch though." Rory said remembering that it was Tuesday, one of the days they had agreed to meet for his counselling sessions.

"I actually wanted to see both of you together. To talk about yesterday's incident, amongst other things."

"Oh, okay." Blaine said. "Now?"

"Yes."

So the three of them made their way to Emma's office and sat down to face each other.

"So I see that your friendship has developed into something more." Miss Pillsbury started the conversation.

"Yes." Blaine said looking at Rory with a smile.

"Good, I'm happy for you, but I see that not everybody is."

"Yeah…" Blaine's smile dropped and was replaced by a look of grief.

"Okay, well that is what I wanted to chat about with you two. Rory, last time we talked you told me about your sexuality and about your fears of being found out. Now that it has been revealed, would you like to tell me how you're feeling about it now?"

Rory thought carefully before he answered. "I have mixed feelings about it. I'm still terrified, especially after what happened to Blaine. But just walking through the corridors this morning wasn't anything like I had feared. I mean, at one stage I was imagining every student in the hallway calling out at me or throwing things at me, but all we got this morning were looks and whispers. And yeah, it annoys me that they do that, but I would take that over what I had imagined any day."

"How did you feel when you found out about Blaine's attack and that everybody knew?"

Rory thought again before saying, "I was actually less shocked than I thought I would have been. I guess I knew that it was only a matter of time until they found out about us. I just chose to ignore it and pretend that it wouldn't."

"I think your right Ror. Secrets like this," Blaine lent over and took Rory's hand, "don't stay secrets for very long, not in a high school. Even if you try and stay discreet, somebody always sees. And once one person sees, everybody knows about it within hours. I reckon we're lucky it took this long for it to happen."

"How do you both think you will deal with this attack and any further bullying or taunting?"

"I've dealt with this before." Blaine admitted. "I had trouble at my old school with bullies who targeted me for my sexuality. It was the main reason I transferred. But, I'm secure enough now in my sexuality that I can deal with the bullying. I've learnt to just accept that it will happen, and try to ignore it when it does. Sure, getting beaten up wasn't fun, but to be honest I was more concerned about Rory than myself."

"That's very interesting, could you tell me why?" Emma asked.

"All I could think about when I was being attacked was Rory in the same position, being kicked and punched by them. He's already been picked on enough and as you know he struggled to deal with it. I was just so concerned that it would be too much for him and he'd do something to himself."

"Are you still concerned?"

"Rory has promised me that he won't try anything, but yes, I'm still concerned."

Rory felt a little offended that Blaine still didn't believe him, but deep down he knew that Blaine was right. Rory liked to think that he was getting over his self-destructive habits, but they were impossible to get out of his mind. Although he had promised Blaine he would never do it again, there was something comforting about the pain he felt from self-harm. It was because the pain he inflicted on himself was controllable. And when he received so much uncontrollable pain every day, from bullies or his father or from feeling bad about himself, being able to control pain was comforting. And he had thought about it every day since he had made that promise to Blaine, but apart from the argument with Kurt and the scissor incident he had been feeling pretty good about himself. Until yesterday of course, when suddenly his life was filled with drama again. The phone call alone was almost enough to send Rory over the edge, but adding Blaine's bashing and his own sexual outing to the mix had caused Rory to crave that controllable comfort. He had considered multiple approaches, cursing himself constantly and willing himself to be stronger. If it wasn't for Blaine he was sure he would have caved. He would have done something horrible to himself and then not only would he be disappointed in himself, but Blaine would be too. As if Blaine had known this he had asked Rory to stay the night. But Rory had realised as he lay in bed last night, hugging his boyfriend, that the comfort he felt from Blaine was just as good, if not better, than the comfort of any self-inflicted pain.

"Rory, would you feel comfortable if we talk about this with topic?" Emma asked politely, aware of the seriousness and delicacy of the issue.

Rory want to say no and leave the room, but he knew that Blaine would know that something was wrong and confront him about it anyway. So he nodded his head.

"So last time we talked about your suicide dream. Have you had any more dreams or thought about it since then?"

"No, I haven't had any more dreams. And I haven't really been having suicidal thoughts either, if that's what you're worried about."

"That's really good to hear. You were telling me the other day that you had done some self-harm when you were younger. Have you been thinking about that at all? Often distressing experiences, like yesterday, cause relapses in things like that."

Rory's mouth went dry as panic flickered through his body. He had lied to Miss Pillsbury when they had talked last Thursday, telling her that his self-harm issues were in his past. He hadn't wanted to tell her that it had only been a few days since he last hurt himself because he knew that she would insist that more people were told. Of course Blaine knew the truth, and now knew that Rory had lied about it to her. He could feel Blaine's eyes staring at him, slowly burning holes in the side of his face. He turned to give him and apologetic look before turning back to Emma.

"I'll admit that I thought about it."

"You thought about it, but you didn't do it?" Emma asked.

Rory nodded.

"Are you proud that you didn't?" She challenged.

It was hard for Rory to feel proud for 'being strong' when he was convinced that he wouldn't have been if Blaine wasn't there.

"I don't know…" he replied.

"_I'm_ proud of you Rors." Blaine said, resting his hand on Rory's back.

Rory could feel Blaine's hand rubbing small circles on his back. He knew that Blaine deserved the truth and when he looked up into his eyes he couldn't help but blurt it out.

"It's because of you Blaine, I didn't do it because of you. I knew you would be disappointed in me. And then when I was hugging you last night I realised just how important you are to me. I used to deal with my pain by myself because I didn't trust anybody and nobody cared about me enough to worry. But I love you Blaine and last night I realised that the comfort that I get from being with you is much stronger than the comfort I ever got from hurting myself."

"I love you too Rory." Blaine said with a smile, leaning over to give his boyfriend a hug. "And I really am so proud of you."

"Awwww" Emma cooed. "Sounds like you two are lucky to have each other."

"We are." Blaine said, taking Rory's hand.

"Okay, well we are almost out of time, I have another appointment next period. My door is always open if you need anything. Good luck out there." Emma pointed to the corridor.

"Thanks for everything Miss." Rory said as he headed to the door.

"You're very welcome Rory. I still want you to keep coming in for meetings on Thursdays and Tuesdays, like we arranged, okay?"

Rory nodded and followed Blaine out the door.

"I'll meet you at your locker at the start of lunch and we can go to the cafeteria and eat with the group, okay?" Blaine instructed as the stood in the corridor waiting for the bell to ring.

"Yep. That's if we survive class."

Blaine wasn't sure how serious Rory's statement had been, but didn't have time to ask because the bell rung and they were separated by the mass of students. Thankfully they both made it through class without any direct harassment. And apart from a few stray name called from across the cafeteria they survived lunch and afternoon classes too.

Glee club rehearsal was fairly laid back that afternoon. They were still on a high from winning Sectionals and the girls from the TroubleTones had agreed to rejoin the group, so they just had a jam session in the auditorium. Blaine and Santana retold the story of yesterday's attack and everybody was sympathetic towards Blaine and Rory and the trouble they had gone through.

As he drove home with Brittany, Rory thought about how different this day had been compared to what he had imagined. Sure, it hadn't been trouble free, but he felt that he could survive it. As long as he had Blaine.

But of course there was still a big black cloud that loomed heavily over his head. His father.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**So, I am beginning to wrap this story up. Soon I will have very limited internet access and no free time, so I won't be able to keep updating. But I have the end of this story planned out and there should be a few more chapters and maybe a short epilogue if I have time.**


	20. Chapter 20

Rory spent the afternoon working hard on his homework. Having missed all of Monday and today's morning classes he had once again gotten behind in his schoolwork. And after everything that had happened in the last two days he felt that it was more important now than ever that he worked hard to get the best possible grades. If he was going to stay in America and try and support himself he would have to take school seriously.

He was grateful that he managed to knock off the majority of his work before dinner time. After eating and helping to clean up after dinner he went back upstairs to shower. When he returned to his room, feeling clean and refreshed he saw his phone flashing on his table. He was delighted to find it was a text from Blaine.

**Hey Baby, just checking to see if you're okay. :) I miss you. xox – B**

Rory couldn't help but smile as he was reminded once again how happy he was to have Blaine.

**Aw, I'm doing fine. Caught up on most of my homework already. I miss you too! – R**

**That's great. Have you thought any more about what you're going to do about your family? – B**

Rory had been thinking a lot about it actually. He had come to the conclusion that he would start by telling the Pierce's. They were the people here that he trusted the most. He hoped that they would be able to give him useful advice. But before he did all that he wanted to try and talk to Seamus first.

**Yeah. I will tell the Pierce's, but I want to talk to Seamus first. – R**

**Okay. Call me if you need anything. I love you. 3 –B**

**Thanks Blaine. I love you too, wish you were here with me. xox – R**

**Me too. ;) Good night. x – B**

Rory set down his phone and sat down at his computer. He opened up a new email message and started typing.

_Hey Seamus,_

_I'm sorry about getting you into trouble. I really need to talk to you again._

_I miss you._

_Rory_

He kept it short and simple, not going into any details in case his father intercepted it.

He slept well that night, despite all of the thoughts racing in his head. He dreamt about a reality where his father wasn't abusive and unsupportive and he took Blaine home with him to Ireland to meet his. He was awoken by his alarm going off in the morning and was sadly pulled from the glorious dream world back to reality.

He had set his alarm earlier than usual, hoping to finish off the rest of his homework before school. He dressed and got straight to work. He had been working on his math equations for five minutes before a ringing sounded around his room. He reached for his phone instinctively, but it was blank. After looking around the room in confusion for another thirty seconds he located the source of the sound, his computer.

He had forgotten he had Skype upload on his laptop. He had set it up so he would be able to talk to his family if needed while he was overseas, but his parents had claimed it was too confusing for them to figure out, so he hadn't used it at all.

The call was coming from a person he didn't recognise and he questioned whether he should answer it or not. His curiosity finally got the better of him and he clicked on the green answer button.

His brother, dressed in school uniform, appeared on the screen with a bunch of trees behind him. He could hear street noises in the background.

"Seamus! What… How…"

"My friend let me borrow his laptop and Skype account. I got your email this morning and wanted to call you as soon as possible."

Rory was so glad to actually be able to see sand talk to his brother again. He had been worried that it wouldn't be possible anymore, but this arrangement seemed to be perfect.

"Shay, I'm so sorry about getting you in trouble."

"Don't be sorry, it was my own fault for being so careless." Seamus looked up past the camera.

"No it wasn't Seamus. How bad was it? Did he hurt you?" Rory stared into the screen eagerly, hoping that the answer was no.

Seamus looked back at the screen. "He completely flipped Rors. It was really scary. I haven't seen him so mad since…well, that time…" They both thought back to the time when his parents first discovered his sexuality. "He only hit me once; his yelling scared the crap out of me more than his fist actually. He's spent a lot of time at the pub too. Ma hasn't said much either, you know how she is."

"I'm sorry Shay. I wish I could have been there to take the blame. He's only angry at me, he just took it out on you because he couldn't get to me."

"It's okay Rors, please stop apologising. I heard that he rang you, so I'm sure that you got a good portion of his anger too."

Rory fell silent, looking down at his lap. He was going to have to tell Seamus about what his father had said to him.

"Yeah, he did. Um…that is what I need to talk to you about."

"Oh, that sounds serious. What happened?" Seamus's face was suddenly covered with concern.

"Well, first he lay into me about the cost of international calls. And then he asked me about Blaine… He said that he was disgusted by me and that I had disgraced the family." Rory was starting to get upset, his voice weakening and his mouth involuntarily pouting. "He said that there were no second chances this time."

They were both silent, just staring at one another through the screen.

"So, what does that mean?" Seamus asked, breaking the silence.

Rory sighed. "He kicked me out Shay."

"For real?" Seamus asked, wide eyed.

Rory nodded sadly.

"So you're not coming home?"

"I don't think I can Shay."

"What are you going to do then! Where will you live?"

"I will stay here in America for now. Hopefully I can get my visa extended and won't get deported."

"I've been so lonely without you all year. I don't have anybody to help me with my homework and nobody to talk to about my problems. You always give me such good advice Rors, you can't leave me forever, I don't know what I'll do without you." Seamus was now visibly upset. Rory hated to see the tears forming in his little brothers eyes. He longed to be there and put his arms around him, wiping away his tears and protecting him from all the bad in the world. "I wish I could just come live with you."

"Maybe you should." Rory said, a new idea popping into his head.

Seamus looked up from his lap into the screen. "What?"

"Come and live with me. Come on exchange like I did and do high school in America. You can come to the same school and we can be together."

"Rory, do you really think that Ma and Pa would let me? Or give me the money?"

"I'll smuggle you out of the country." Rory said with a grin.

This comment made Seamus smile and crack a small laugh. "If only it was that easy…."

"I'm serious though, you know. I bet we could find a way. I would love to have you here. We could get a place together, I don't know how we'd pay for it. But we could do it!"

"It sounds like a great plan, but I don't think we have much of a chance." Seamus's sad frown returned to his face.

"Don't say that Shay."

"I'm just being realistic."

"I know, but we'll never get anywhere without hope."

The brothers smiled at each other until the sound of a school bell interrupted them.

"Oh, lunch break is over. I have to go. I'm really glad we got to talk Rory."

"Me too." Rory replied. "I hope your friend will let you borrow his laptop again, so we can talk."

"He should, he's really nice. He reminds me of you actually, I think that's why I like him so much."

Rory smiled. "Okay, you better go, I don't want you to be late to class."

"Bye Rory. I love you." Seamus said waving at the screen.

"I love you too Seamus. Bye." Rory waved back and then disconnected the call.

Rory ran downstairs to find the Pierce's halfway through breakfast.

"There you are! I was beginning to worry you had slept in or something." Mrs Pierce said, pushing an empty bowl and box of cereal toward him.

"No, I actually got up early to do homework. But then my brother rang me on Skype and we talked for a while." Rory replied, pouring the cereal and milk into his bowl.

"That's great. How is he?"

"Um…he's okay. I really miss him."

"Aw, I'm sure you do. Did you talk to your parents as well?"

Rory looked down at his cereal and gave it a small stir. "No, I didn't."

"Oh, maybe next time then. Have you told them about what happened yet?"

Rory shook his head, still looking down at his now soggy cereal. Now was not the time to discuss the situation with his parents so he just said, "Not yet."

"I think you should tell them soon, Rory. I really think they will want to know."

"Don't worry, I will." Rory said to put her mind at ease.

He quickly consumed his breakfast and ran upstairs to finish getting ready for school. He was nervous as he drove to school with Brittany, just because yesterday had gone okay didn't mean that today would be hassle free. He could feel many sets of eyes following him again as he walked down the corridor to his locker and found Blaine waiting for him.

"Hey, have you heard the news yet?" asked Blaine, giving him a light hug.

Rory savoured the hug and Blaine's smell until he noticed a bunch of students behind them staring. He quickly pulled away. "What news?"

"They were expelled."

"Really. That's great!" Rory said excitedly. He felt a small weight lift off his shoulders, deep down he had been terrified that the bullies would not be expelled and be allowed back in the halls and that they would hunt both him and Blaine down for payback.

"Yeah, how are you this fine morning?"

"I'm okay. I talked to Seamus."

"How is he? Did you tell him about what your father said?"

Rory nodded. "He's okay. He got really upset when I told him. I feel so bad for him."

"Aw…he'll be okay." Blaine rubbed Rory's back soothingly. "Now that you've talked to him are you going to talk to the Pierce's?"

"Yeah, I think I'll do it tonight. I was hoping that you would help me. I feel safe and comforted when you're with me, I need you there."

"Oh course baby." Blaine said, grabbing Rory's hand and giving it a small squeeze.

...

It seemed that the expulsion of the two seniors who attacked Blaine had scared the general student body into behaving. Rory had been terrified when he ran into Rick and a bunch of the other hockey players in the hallway. He saw them come around the corner into the relatively empty corridor and he leaned back against some lockers as if hoping he could melt into them and disappear. He thought that this would be it; there was no way that they would leave him alone. But to his surprise they walked past him, only sneering at him and a muttering the word 'leprechaun'.

...

Blaine had a free period at the end of the day and normally would have gone home early, but had stayed at school to wait for Rory. They had planned to go out for a coffee after school. Tired of his homework he packed his books up five minutes early and wandered through the corridors to his locker. From the end of the hallway he could see a white piece of paper attached to the front of his locker. Curious as to what it was he quickened his pace, reaching his locker twice as fast. He ripped the folded paper off the door and opened it.

Written across the top in black texta was the word 'faggots'. Below was a crude drawing of what he assumed was supposed to be him and Rory.

Anger boiled through him as he scrunched up the picture and threw it in the bin. Somebody was really cowardly enough to post anonymous hate on his locker. Thankful that the hallways were still empty he grabbed his bag and hurried around to Rory's locker. His heart broke when he saw that it too had a folded piece of paper attached to the front. He ripped it off, not even bothering to check what was inside, tore it up and threw it in a nearby bin. He returned to stand by Rory's locker and waited while the bell rang until he eventually showed up.

"Hey Blaine. You know you should really just move into my locker or something since you're always here now anyway." Rory joked.

Blaine cracked a weak smile and simply said, "yeah."

Rory's eyebrows furrowed and a look of concern graced his face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... Sorry, I was just a little distracted thinking about some homework." Blaine lied, putting a reassuring smile on his face. He wasn't going to tell Rory about the notes, there was no need to stress the poor boy.

"Okay." Rory opened his locker and got his bag out. "Are you still keen for coffee?"

"Sure am." Blaine said leading the way out to his car.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:**

**Hey, so I don't know how many people are still reading this because I stopped getting reviews. I don't know whether that is because people stopped reading, or people were just too lazy to review or people didn't like the direction the story went in. **

**The bad news for anyone who is still deeply invested in this story is that this is the last main chapter. As I have previously mentioned I am about to run out of internet access and free time. So sorry, I would love to write more, but won't be able to.**

**The good news is that I will be writing four or five small drabbles that will be the epilogue. So expect them soon.**

* * *

><p>After spending most of the afternoon at the Lima Bean the couple stopped by Blaine's house to pick up some spares clothes for tomorrow and his toothbrush. Rory had asked Blaine to stay the night with him and Blaine had happily agreed. They sat down to dinner with Rory's host family and joined in with the casual dinner conversations.<p>

After helping with the dishes Rory addressed his guardians, "I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure honey, what's the matter?" Mrs Pierce asked taken aback by the serious tone of Rory's statement.

"Um…can we sit down?" Rory gestured to the living room. This was going to be a long conversation so they might as well get comfortable.

"Sure."

Blaine and Rory sat together on one couch while Mr and Mrs Pierce sat on the other. They both stared at Rory, waiting for him to speak.

"I need to talk to you about my parents. I haven't really been telling you the truth about them."

"What do you mean?" Mr Pierce asked confused.

"They're not really the kind of people that I have been saying they are," Rory paused, trying to find the right words, "and we've kinda had a…disagreement."

"I thought something was up when I asked you about your parents this morning." said Mrs Pierce.

"Ah…yeah…"

Both the Pierce's stared at Rory waiting for him to continue.

"So, you guys just found out about my sexuality…and it's so amazing how cool you are about it. My parents are not supportive…at all."

Rory looked at Blaine for encouragement. This was going to be as hard as he expected. Blaine smiled back at him and slipped his arm around Rory's waist, pulling him closer to him.

"My father…he drinks a lot…and he's…abusive."

A small gasp escaped from Mrs Pierce's mouth.

"I came over here to get away from him and the horrible life I had in Ireland."

Rory looked at his host parents to judge their reactions. Mrs Pierce had a troubled look on her face while her husband sat next to her with a look that seemed to be a cross between anger and sympathy.

"I haven't really been talking to them at all since I came here. The first time I talked to any of my family since arriving was a few nights ago when my brother rang me. I was so happy to speak to him and I told him all about Blaine. But my father overheard our conversation and wasn't happy." Rory stopped and took a deep breath, feeling all the pain from the last few days come back to him again. "He rang me on Monday, that is why I missed most of school that day, and confronted me about what he'd heard." Rory's breathing had grown heavy from the effort of restrain his emotions. "He said that I disgusted him and…disgraced the family." Rory let out a small whimper. "Then he…he…"

He wasn't able to finish the sentence. Blaine sensed this and finished it for him.

"Rory's father kicked him out," he said bluntly.

There was silence in the room, save for Rory's sniffling.

Mrs Pierce broke the silence, "I can't imagine how hard this has been for you Rory."

All Rory could do was nod.

"Is there any chance your father will change his mind?" Mr Pierce asked.

"No way. Especially not after the way I stood up to him. He's not the forgiving kind. But to be honest I really don't want him to change his mind…"

"Oh honey, you know you can stay here as long as you need." Mrs Pierce said warmly. "I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I care for you as if you were my own son."

Hearing her say that made Rory's heart swell with emotions. "Really?"

"Of course."

Blaine turned to face Rory and said, "See, I told you they would let you stay. And even if you couldn't stay here, you could stay with me. And if I wasn't around I bet any of the other Glee kids would insist you stay with them, we wouldn't let you be homeless. We all love you Rory and don't want you to leave."

Rory smiled and gave his boyfriend a hug. "Thanks Blaine, but the question still remains, what do I do when my visa expires?"

"I'm sure we can get it extended. At least until you graduate." Mr Pierce suggested.

"I just….Seamus…I feel bad for leaving him. I told him he should come over here too, but my parents would never let him."

"Oh, now I understand why you were so sad after talking to him this morning." said Mrs Pierce, "We would be most happy to have him here too. If he can find a way to get here, he would be very welcome to stay with us."

Rory's eyes grew wide. "Really? For real?"

The Pierce's looked at each other quickly for confirmation before turning back to nod at Rory.

"Yes. And if you need any help with Seamus or dealing with your parents we will be most happy to help."

"Thank you." Rory said, standing up and going to give both of his adoptive parents a hug. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go send Seamus an email."

Rory ran upstairs, Blaine following him, and opened up his laptop to type:

_Seamus,_

_I hope we can talk soon, I have something good to tell you._

_I love you._

_Rory_

Rory set his alarm early again, hoping that Seamus would receive his email and try and call again in the morning. After getting ready for bed the couple snuggled together in Rory's bed. They had to cuddle closer than normal because Rory only had a single bed not a double like Blaine, not that either of them complained about it.

"Rory, what are you doing for Christmas?" Blaine asked, his head resting on Rory's chest.

"Christmas? I don't know. The Pierce's are going someplace called Santa Fe, they invited me to come with them."

"Are you going to go?"

"I don't know, I think they have family there and I don't really want to intrude. I think I would feel awkward."

"Well, what if you spend it with me? My family are staying here for Christmas; I would love for you to be there."

"Really? Your parents wouldn't mind?" Rory asked excitedly.

Blaine smiled and nodded his head before bring his lips up to meet Rory's. Rory smiled into Blaine's lips and then kissed him back. The couple lay in each other's arms kissing lazily until they both fell asleep.

They woke at the sound of Rory's alarm beeping. Rory fumbled around to turn it off, stretched and then crawled out of the bed. He stood up, only to have Blaine wrap his arms around his waist and be pulled back down into his arms.

A surprised squeal escaped Rory's mouth and then they both burst into giggles. "Blaine!"

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to enjoy waking up to your face for a moment. Why did you have to be in such a rush to get up? Can't we cuddle?" Blaine sounded almost whiney.

"I have to turn on my computer first, then we can cuddle." Rory said giving Blaine a quick kiss and then wriggling free of his arms.

He got up and turned on his laptop, waited for it to finish loading. He opened up Skype and then returned to the bed where Blaine greedily pulled him into his arms and nuzzled against his neck.

They lay together for half an hour, in which time Blaine had fallen asleep again and Rory had begun to think Seamus wouldn't call. As he almost let himself fall asleep again a ringing from the computer made him leap up off the bed, waking Blaine as he pulled out of his arms, and sit at his desk chair.

He hit the green answer button and his brother's smiling face appeared on the screen.

"Seamus!" Rory smiled, "I was beginning to think you wouldn't call."

"Sorry, but I have something exciting to tell you!" exclaimed Seamus.

"Me too," Rory smiled, "you go first."

"Okay. Ma came to talk to me last night, while Dad was at the pub. She wanted to know if I'd heard from you since your conversation with dad."

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her that we had talked on Skype."

"And what did she say?"

"She asked how you were. I think she was genuinely concerned. I told her that you seemed really happy, had good friends and a nice host family and that you planned to stay in the US."

"Did she have anything to say about that?"

Seamus shook his head. "She looked really sad when I said you weren't coming back to Ireland, but she didn't say anything."

Rory wasn't surprised that his mother hadn't said anything about Rory's being kicked out. His mother had always stood obediently by his father's side. He was shocked that she had actually had this conversation with Seamus at all; it proved that some small part of her did still care about him.

"I mentioned your suggestion for me to come over to be with you, and you never guess what she said about that."

Rory stared at Seamus intensely, "What?"

"She agreed with you."

"WHAT! No way. Really?"

Seamus nodded. "She got really emotional and said that maybe it would be better for me if I come to live with you."

Rory was speechless.

"She said that if I really did want to go she would help me. Sign papers, get flights and stuff. Of course she said that she wouldn't be able to help much once I got here, like financially or anything, but like you said yesterday, we can find a way."

Rory couldn't stop smiling. "I can't believe it! This is going to be perfect Shay. I need to tell you my good news! I talked to the Pierce's last night and they said that I was welcome to stay with them as long as I need."

"Oh, that's great Rors."

"Yeah, but that's not the good news. They said that you would be welcome too."

"Did they really?" Seamus asked excitedly. "We can stay with them together! That would be perfect. And I could go to your school and meet your friends!"

Rory laughed, he hadn't seen Seamus this excited since they were much younger. It made him so happy to see his brother happy, and the thought of Seamus coming to live with him and the Pierce's actually being possible made him even happier.

The brothers stared into each other's eyes for a long moment, just smiling at each other, sharing their emotions without even speaking. That was until Seamus's eyes suddenly moved to look at something behind Rory. He let out a surprised cough and stuttered, "Oh…wow…"

Rory turned around in his chair to investigate what it was that had attracted his brother's attention. What he found was a shirtless Blaine digging through his overnight bag. With all the excitement of talking to Seamus he had managed to completely forget his boyfriend was still in the room. Blaine stood up and smiled at him, giving him a wink while pulling on a clean shirt.

Rory turned back around to face the screen to find Seamus sitting there with his mouth hanging open. Rory giggled and said, "Sorry Shay. I should have warned you I had company."

Rory turned and grabbed Blaine's hand, dragging him toward the computer.

"Blaine, meet Seamus. Seamus, this is Blaine."

"Nice to meet you." Blaine said politely. "I really hope I can meet you in person soon."

"Me too!" Seamus practically squealed. "Do you guys normally sleep together on school nights?"

"Seamus!" Rory blushed a little, feeling embarrassed. "We have been having a few sleepovers these past few days, but only because we've been having a hard week and want to comfort each other."

"Sure, 'comfort each other', that's what you're calling it." Seamus commented with a cheeky smile.

"Seamus! Stop being so dirty minded!"

Blaine was laughing at the way Rory's cheeks had turned a deep shade of pink and the way his voice changed a little when he was embarrassed.

Seamus too was laughing on the screen. "Calm down Rors. I'm not judging ya! You can have 'sleepovers' with him if you want."

Their laughing was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Come in." Rory called.

Mrs Pierce opened the door and stuck her head in.

"Hey you two, are you coming down for breakfast any time soon." She examined the half-dressed Blaine and Rory, who was still in his pyjamas. "You're going to be late to school."

"We'll be down soon, come here I want you to meet my brother." Rory waved his hand beckoning her to come into his room.

She happily complied and came to stand next to Blaine and stare at the screen.

"Seamus, this is my host mother Mary Pierce."

"Nice to meet you Ma'am." said Seamus politely, examining Mrs Pierce.

"Nice to meet you too Seamus. Rory has told us all about you." She gave him a warm smile. "I just want to let you know that you are very welcome to stay here with us and Rory."

"Thank you so much Ma'am. You're so kind. From what Rory has told me you are very nice people and I would love to stay with you. I'll have to see how things work out though."

"Of course honey. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go or I'll be late." She backed out of the room. "You two better hurry up."

"We will." Rory said before turning back to Seamus. "Sorry mate, but we have to go."

"I do too. Bye Rors, I hope that everything is going to work out for us."

"Me to Shay, me too. Bye, I love you." Rory waved.

"I love you too."

The call disconnected and the boys had to rush to get ready for school. They did make it to school just in time for the bell to ring.

Rory happily sat through his classes, day dreaming about what life would be like if Seamus really did move here with him. At one point he got so carried away imagining introducing Seamus to the Glee Club that he didn't notice when his history teacher asked him to answer a question. It was only when Tina, who he was sitting next to, nudged him harshly in the ribs with her elbow that he was drawn back to reality and had to ask to teacher to repeat the question. This of course led to a chorus of sniggers from the other students, but Rory didn't really care, nothing was going to ruin his good mood.

After lunch he headed towards Miss Pillsbury's office instead of the library for his free period for his arranged session. He wasn't sure what kind of things she would want to talk to him about today, so much had changed in the last week and after all the ups and downs he felt like emotionally he had settled in a much better place.

They had a discussion about how he had been feeling since they last talked and Rory described how much better he had been feeling, particularly these last two days. Emma inquired about the bullying situation and Rory happily reported that it had been much milder than he had expected and was coping with it okay.

Emma asked if there was anything more he wanted to talk about. The first and really only thing that sprung to his mind was his family situation. Being kicked out of home was something he should tell her about, but he was still reluctant. It wasn't that he didn't trust her; it was more that he felt kinda embarrassed about it. One of the many reasons he had never told anybody about how his father treated him was because he thought it would make people see his life as even more pathetic than it already was. He didn't want people to think of him as a poor little abuse boy, it made him feel weak. But he was going to have to tell her eventually, if he said he was staying in the US until he graduated she would wonder why. So he told her the truth about being kicked out of home and how much he hated his father. He told her about the Pierce's letting him stay and the possibility of his brother coming over too. Her reaction to all of this information was what he had expected. First shock, then sympathy and compassion and a "Thanks for telling me Rory, I can imagine how hard this has been for you. It helps me better understand these feelings you have been having lately."

"Yeah…I guess so…" Rory said, still feeling uncomfortable about it.

"So is your brother really going to come here too?"

"I really hope so." Rory sighed.

"McKinley would gladly accept him as a student."

"That's good to know. We'll have to see how things work out."


	22. Epilogue

**A/N:**

**This is the Epilogue and consists of five drabbles. Some of them are ridiculously fluffy and then I just couldn't help myself with the last one (you'll see what I mean when you get there). :D**

* * *

><p><strong>Christmas<strong>

"Merry Christmas Baby," whispered Blaine into Rory's ear, wrapping his arms tight around the sleeping boy.

Rory stirred and wriggled around in Blaine's arms, eyes fluttering open.

"mmmmwhaattt?" Rory mumbled, stretching his arms out, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Blaine smiled and buried his head into Rory's exposed neck, giving it a kiss before repeating, "Merry Christmas Baby."

Rory was suddenly wide awake, a big smile on his face, as he remembered what that today was Christmas. His joy was heightened by the fact that he was spending it with Blaine and the Anderson's, who he had gotten to know and love over the last couple of weeks. He turned in Blaine's arms to face him and brought their lips together. Rory let his hands travel down his boyfriend's body, resting them on his hips and drawing him closer. Blaine moaned at the close contact and rubbed his tongue up against Rory's bottom lip. Rory happily parted his lips to allow Blaine access. Blaine worked his tongue into every corner and crevasse of the Irishman's mouth, eliciting moans and whimpers of pleasure from the younger boy. Blaine pulled away as Rory begun to grind their hips together, causing Rory to whine and lean forward to try and reattach their lips.

"Sorry Rors, but we can't get too excited. If we don't get up soon my parents will come in to wake us. Besides, I have something else for you." Blaine leaned away and reached into his bedside draw, pulling out a small box shaped present. Rory's eyes widened as he realised it was for him and shifted up into a sitting position.

"Here, I'm giving you this now because I can't wait any longer." He placed the box in Rory's hands. "I love you Rory. Merry Christmas."

Rory's fingers made quick work of the neat wrapping paper, tearing it to shreds to reveal a small jewellery box. He popped it open to find a shiny silver ring. The band had two engraved rings around the top and bottom in between which the inscription 'Here For You, Always' and a small love heart sat.

"Blaine." Rory said breathlessly, pulling the ring out of the box's padding and inspecting it closer. "This is…beautiful."

Blaine smiled and took the ring from his hands and sliding it onto Rory's finger. "I just wanted you to have a physical reminder of how much I love you. So when we're apart you can just look at your hand and remember that you're not alone, I'm here for you."

Rory wiped away a stray tear that had escaped and brought his lips up to give Blaine a slow, passionate kiss. He broke apart, keeping his forehead resting on Blaine's.

"Thank you Blaine. I love you so much."

* * *

><p><strong>Seamus<strong>

"Is it time to go yet?" Rory squealed, jumping off the couch as Mrs Pierce entered the room, pulling on her coat.

The woman couldn't help but smile at Rory's excitement as she nodded her head in response. Rory was already wrapped up in his coat and had been sitting in the lounge room waiting for half an hour tapping his fingers impatiently on the couch cushions.

"Yes!" he cheered and ran out through the front door and jumped into the passenger's side of the Pierce's SUV. It took another minute for Brittany and Mrs Pierce to get in and buckle their seatbelts. Rory wriggled in his seat and didn't stop talking the whole two hour ride. Mrs Pierce chuckled to herself as she realised that she had literally never heard him talk this much. When Rory finally spotted a road sign with the words Airport on it he shrieked with delight and started yelling obvious directions to Mrs Pierce.

Rory couldn't contain himself as they walked through the large automatic doors of the arrivals lounge. He grabbed Brittany's hand and dragged her towards the large screen that listed the incoming flights. His eyes scanned the screen until they finally came to land, wide eyed, on a particular flight.

"There! That's it! That's Seamus's flight!" Rory jumped up and down, still attached to Brittany's hand. "It lands in ten minutes! Come on, the gates down here."

Rory took off with Brittany in tow and Mrs Pierce trying to follow after them through the crowd. After what felt like an hour, not fifteen minutes, people started to flow off the now landed plane and through the gate. Rory scanned the crowd searching keenly for a sight of his brother. When he finally spotted a short head of brown hair, similar to his own, passing through the gate he leap off his perch on a seat rail and ran towards his brother, calling out his name.

The younger brother heard his name and spun his head around, searching for the source. He found it as Rory materialised out of the crowd and his carry-on bag fell from his hands as he was lifted off the ground in a body crushing hug. Rory set him back on the ground and pushed him back slightly to look at him. The smiles on the boy's faces were impossibly wide and both were shedding silent joyful tears.

"I'm so glad you made it." Rory said as he drew in for another hug, lowering his voice. "I missed you more than you'll ever know."

"Me too Ror." Seamus whispered into Rory's ear. "Me too."

* * *

><p><strong>Audition<strong>

"Are you sure Rory?" the younger Irish boy said quietly as they stood in the empty corridor.

Rory let his hand fall from its place in Blaine's to take his brother's instead, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Of course Shay."

"But what if I'm not good enough to join? Or what if they don't like me or I don't fit in with the group?"

"Seamus, don't be silly. You are an amazing singer and you were perfect every time we practiced you audition song. And the group will love you, okay. How can they not, you're adorable." Seamus blushed at the compliment and some of the sparkle returned to his eyes. "Besides, I wouldn't get you to do this if I didn't think it was a good idea."

"Okay Ror, I trust you."

Blaine led the way into the full choir room and sat down on an empty chair in the front row. Rory, still holding his brothers hand, walked up to the front of the room where Mr Shue was waiting for them. He turned to the group and spoke.

"Hello guys. It is my absolute honour to introduce to you my brother Seamus. He's just started here at McKinley too, he's a freshman, and I've convinced him to join the Glee Club."

Rory prodded Seamus' side, urging him to say something.

"Hi…uh, it's so nice to meet you all. Rory has told me lots about you and how nice and supportive you've been to him. Thank you so much for looking after him."

There were audible 'awwws' from the group and smiles on their faces.

"So, uh…I have a song." Seamus quickly glanced at Rory for confirmation. Rory nodded. "Rory and Blaine helped me prepare it. I hope you like it."

Rory let go of his brother's hand, giving him a quick hug and whispering "you'll be fine" into his ear before going to sit down next to Blaine.

The music begun and he sang along, letting himself get lost in the music. He smiled to himself as his song drew to a close, knowing that he had done the best he could. He opened his eyes as the last notes played and found the entire club smiling at him, hands clapping enthusiastically.

"That was fantastic Seamus." Mr Shuester said, giving him a pat on the back. "We would love to have you in the club."

* * *

><p><strong>Immigration<strong>

Four teenagers sat in the Pierce's living room, all staring at the television. Brittany was curled up on one end of the smaller couch, her head resting on the arm. Seamus was on the other end of the sofa, trying to hide his blush every time his blonde couch buddy shuffled and her feet brushed up against him. Blaine and Rory had commandeered the larger couch, Blaine sitting at one end and Rory laying down with his head in Blaine's lap, fiddling with the shiny ring on his finger. Blaine lazily stroked his fingers through his boyfriend's hair as he watched the screen.

Rory was the only one of the four that was paying no attention to the screen. He had been deep in thought since the movie had begun. A sigh escaped his lips and drew the attention of Blaine.

"What's the matter?" Blaine asked quietly, moving his hand down to Rory's chin and turning it up so he could see his boyfriends face.

"Oh, nothing. I've just been thinking about my visa."

"It'll be okay Rors. We've sent off all the paper work already, I'm sure it will get approved." Blaine leant down and gave him a sweet peck on the lips.

"But that was almost two weeks ago. We should have heard back about it by now. What if they haven't sent it back yet because they are going to decline it?" The growing worry in Rory's voice upset Blaine, he hated seeing Rory like that.

"Awww, please don't worry too much baby. It will be approved, I know it. They must have a lot of applications to sort through at the moment or something."

Rory sighed again. "Okay, you're probably right."

When Rory, Seamus and Brittany got home from school the next day Mrs Pierce was waiting anxiously in the kitchen, holding a sealed white envelope. Rory froze as he realised what it was, the envelope that would determine his future.

"Here." Mrs Pierce handed it to him.

His fingers shook as he carefully ripped open the side and pulled out the contents of the envelope. Seamus peered over Rory's shoulder as he unfolded the letter and began to read. As his eyes scanned down the page Mrs Pierce could tell that things had gone in their favour from the smile that was growing on Rory's face. He finished and tossed the letter aside.

"It was approved! I got a full student visa until I graduate!" he exclaimed.

There were cheers from all around the room and Rory exchanged hugs with his brother and host family before whipping his phone out to call Blaine and tell him the good news.

* * *

><p><strong>Together<strong>

"Are you sure about this?" Blaine asked, breaking the kiss and staring down into Rory's blue eyes. "We really don't have to do it yet, I want you to be ready."

"I'm sure, Blaine. I really, really want this." Rory breathed heavily, shifting his hips desperately searching for some friction against the boy on top of him. "I want to feel you in me," he whimpered.

Blaine moaned and ground his hips down again to meet Rory's. "You have no idea how much I want you right now, Baby." Blaine brought his lips to his boyfriend's ear, brushing them as he spoke. "You're so beautiful."

Blaine pulled back and leaned over the top of Rory to reach for the small bottle of lube and condom he had stashed away in his draw. He settled back and hastily stripped Rory of his jeans and boxers as well as removing his own, their shirts long since discarded. He returned to straddle Rory's thighs, taking his hard length into his hands and giving it a firm stroke. Rory let his head fall back onto the pillow and a string of praise fall from his mouth.

Blaine popped the cap of the bottle and poured a generous amount onto his fingers before reaching down to teasingly stroke the ring of muscle between Rory's legs. He leaned up to kiss Rory, swallowing the lustful moans from his mouth, before whispering, "ready?"

Rory nodded enthusiastically before attacking Blaine's mouth with his tongue. Blaine carefully pushed his finger into Rory's hole. Rory tensed and bit back a gasp.

"Shh…just relax baby." Blaine cooed as he started to wiggle his finger around. Once he felt Rory relax completely around his finger he added a second, waiting for a moment to let him adjust, before twisting them around to hit his sweet spot.

"Oh…" Rory cried. "Ohmygod…there!"

Blaine smiled to himself and twisted his fingers to hit the spot again, gaining more cries of joy from the younger boy. He added a third finger and waited for Rory to relax again before scissoring them carefully to stretch Rory wide enough. Rory was too far gone to care about the pain, the pleasure was overpowering the strange stretching sensation. Once Rory began to thrust down onto Blaine's fingers he knew he was ready. He twisted his fingers to hit Rory's spot one more time before drawing out. Rory whined, bringing his head up to see what was going on.

Blaine was putting on the condom and reached for the lube bottle again to slick himself up, only to be stopped by Rory's hand.

"Can I do it?" Rory asked breathlessly, staring at Blaine's erect cock.

Blaine handed him the bottle and leant up on his knees so Rory had better access. Rory squeezed some of the lube onto his hand and brought it to wrap around Blaine's length. He rubbed his hand up and down, making sure to cover every impressive inch of the cock with the slick substance, grinning at the moans Blaine was producing from his actions. After ensuring it was well covered he lay back down and parted his legs for Blaine.

Blaine adjusted himself so he was pressing against Rory's stretched hole and looked up to Rory. He could hardly restrain himself as he took in the flushed features of Rory's face, his blue eyes sparkling and mouth gapping. Blaine brought one of his hands up to grip Rory's, lacing their fingers together, and declared, "I love you, Rory. You're so beautiful."

Through the cloud of lust Rory was able to calm down for a second and respond with a heartfelt "I love you too."

And with that Blaine pushed his hips forward, guiding his cock into Rory, both boys gasping as they were fully connected for the first time. Once Blaine had completely disappeared into Rory he held himself back, waiting until Rory was adjusted. Soon the restraint became too much and Blaine rolled his hips back gently, still cautious not to hurt him, and then surged them forward again. Rory's hands clenched into their anchors, Blaine's hand and the bed sheet, as his back arched up, moaning with pleasure.

Blaine repeated the action, eventually gaining a rhythm. Rory's moans and whimpering was almost enough to tip Blaine over the edge, but he was determined to get Rory there with him. Changing the angel of his hips slightly only to have Rory cry out, "Oh! There…again, Blaine…please…faster." Blaine picked up the pace, beginning to lose the rhythm as he teetered on the edge of climax.

He let go of Rory's hand, bringing his down between their bodies to fist Rory's erect cock. Rory screamed out his boyfriend's name, strings of cum covering his stomach and Blaine's hand. As Rory's muscle contracted around Blaine he was finally brought over the edge too, his body collapsing on top of Rory, bringing their lips together in a sloppy kiss as they rode their orgasms out together.

They lay there like that for a few minutes, coming down from their highs, trying to catch their breath. Blaine pulled out and rolled off the bed. He quickly discarded the condom, grabbing a bunch of tissues from his dresser. Crawling back onto the bed he wiped off himself and Rory, who was laying on the bed with his eyes closed. He discarded the tissues and slipped under the covers bringing Rory with him. Rory sighed and cuddled into his chest.

"Thank you Blaine. That was amazing." Rory said, his voice barley a whisper.

Blaine stoked his hair affectionately. "I know baby. You're so amazing. I love you."

"I love you too." Rory mumbled before drifting off to sleep, safe in the arms of the one he loved.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who has read, reviewed, favourite and alerted this story. I had a lot of fun writing it and I am glad that you all liked it.**

**This is definitely the last chapter that will be posted, but reviews are always welcome.**

**I would love to know what you thought of these drabbles and which one was your favourite. My favourite one to write was 'Seamus'.**

**Thank You So Much,**

**ItsNeverWhatItSeems**


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